Meteor Mashed!
by delta-velocity
Summary: "Good afternoon! This is Lopunny, and you're listening to Wish Park FM! It's almost February 14, which means the long-awaited Meteor Mash-up is here! In this annual event, ten lucky boys and ten lucky girls will get randomly paired up! What will happen, you ask? Sparks will fly! (Hopefully!) Love is in the air! (Literally!) Come one, come all - let's Meteor Mash!"
1. Chapter 1

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

"Hey, Lopunny!"

"Lopunny, it's almost February 14. You gonna do the Mash-up thing again?"

"Lopunny, I can't wait for your annual Meteor Mash-up!"

...

* * *

><p>To say that Lopunny is famous is probably an understatement.<p>

In fact, the rabbit Pokémon is _the_ it-girl in Wish Park. She's gained considerable reputation as the star of Chandelure's Dance Inferno attraction with her slender body, long legs, and cute dance moves, but she's also known all throughout Wish Park as the Pokémon who runs Wish Park FM, the park's radio channel.

If you listen to Wish Park FM, you can get updates about the four attractions (Lopunny even has the attraction masters become commentators), catchy music chosen by Lopunny herself, and up-to-date news ("Ooh! Pansage of the Arbor Area has hit a new high score for the Cake Contraption attraction! Can any of you beat [insert high score here]? We await the best Cake Contraptors at the Cake Zone!")

However, the most-awaited event on Wish Park FM was the Meteor Mash-up, held every year on February 14.

In Lopunny's Meteor Mash-up, ten lucky boys and ten lucky girls get to be randomly paired up. The ten pairs are then supposed to spend time with each other. Some of them choose to just be ordinary friends, but some of the more dramatic ones (probably taken over by the lovey-dovey feeling of Valentine's Day) use it as an opportunity to meet "that special Pokémon".

Everything - the list of the participants and the result of the randomized pairing - is announced on the air. Pokémon from Wish Park, PokéPark, and even as far as Treasure Town and Pokémon Square take delight in listening about the Meteor Mash-up participants' misadventures (and mis-dates, anyway), especially when someone they know is participating. In short, the Meteor Mash-up is the most anticipated event to air on Wish Park FM.

Now, Lopunny was skipping into the Dance Zone of Wish Park. The random Pokémon that had greeted her was right - it was almost February 14, which means it was almost time to admit participants into the Meteor Mash-up. She decided that she would make the announcement on Wish Park FM today.

Once she had reached a back room in Chandelure's grand tent (which also served as the Wish Park FM radio station), she quickly went on the air.

»̶✽«̶

* * *

><p><em>A few days later<br>__Treasure Town_

Siblings Roselio the Roselia and Darwynette "Darwin" the Roserade were sitting in their house listening to the radio when an announcement came on.

"Gooood afternoon, Pokémon! This is Lopunny, and you're listening to Wish Park FM! It's almost February 14 aka. Valentine's Day aka. The Day of Love aka. I'm Going to Meet That Special Someone, and you're in luck! Guess what's coming back on the air...!"

Roselio had actually already heard the announcement before - it had often been played these recent days - but it seemed as if his sister hadn't. Darwin turned up the volume.

"That's right, the Meteor Mash-up! It's what you've all been waiting for! After another year, it's finally here!"

Lopunny went on to explain the steps to apply to be a participant of the Meteor Mash-up.

Darwin snorted. "Another year, another Meteor Mash. I don't know what's so fun about meeting someone you've never met before in your life and attempting to get along with them."

Roselio shrugged. "Well, I get your point. My friend Emolga took part in it last year, and she got paired up with a hotheaded Scraggy. Instead of becoming friends with him, she and Scraggy totally got onto each other's nerves! Maybe it's a given, though - Emolga can be pretty annoying herself at times!"

"It's like they don't understand anything about how love works," Darwin said matter-of-factly in her usual know-it-all voice. "You can't force yourself to love someone, yeah? Most people meet their special friend accidentally, not because they took part in some randomized pairing event..."

As you can see, Darwin is Roselio's older sister. She's well into her teen years, and she's also your typical teenage girl: always stressed out, picky about appearance, thinks she knows a whole lot, and is always talking about Hypno, whom she claimed was her boyfriend. (Like I said before, her real name is actually Darwynette, but you call her that and she freaks out.)

Roselio, miraculously, is the well-mannered kind of younger brother, which is perhaps a rather rare species indeed. He's happy-go-lucky and doesn't seem to mind Darwin's big-sister-ish behavior.

Roselio nodded. He did believe that his sister was quite knowledgeable on the subject of love. After all, she was forever talking about her boyfriend, Hypno. He also understood - pretty well, in fact - that she didn't agree with the concept of the Meteor Mash-up. "That's not how real love works," she'd said.

However, he'd been thinking about it since the first time he heard the announcement. What he was going to tell his sister would surprise her, since she'd always thought they both didn't like the Meteor Mash-up idea.

He chuckled somewhat nervously. "Well, the Meteor Mash-up may sound silly for you, but I'm actually going to... You know..."

Darwin frowned at him. "What? You're going to _what?_ Spill it, younger bro."

"I'm going to participate in this year's Meteor Mash-up."

"You _what?!_" Darwin gasped. "You're going to _participate_ in the Meteor Mash-up?"

"Well, yeah." Her brother shrugged again. "I think it sounds fun. You don't have to go all romantic with whoever you get paired up with, of course. I just kinda like meeting new people and all."

"Humph." Darwin frowned. "Whatever. Do what you want, little bro. But I'm warning you, that's not how real love works."

»̶✽«̶

* * *

><p>Roselio did all of Lopunny's steps to apply to participate in the Meteor Mash-up. He sent a form to the radio station at Wish Park's Dance Zone. He'd been talking about it with his friends, some of whom were participating in the event, too, including his best friends Froslass Yukimenoko and Staraptor Mukuhawk.<p>

Today was the same. Roselio was talking with Froslass and Staraptor at his house when Darwin went in with a smug look on her face.

"Guess what," she said victoriously.

"What?" Staraptor asked with a sigh. Unlike Roselio, Staraptor usually found Darwin annoying and a know-it-all.

Darwin grinned a cat's grin.

"I'm participating in the Meteor Mash-up after all."

"Really?" Roselio asked. "I thought you didn't like it."

"That's right," Darwin agreed. "I don't like it... _unless Hypno's participating._"

"So you mean Hypno's participating too?"

"Well, yeah!" Darwin said gleefully. "I'd just known that today. Basically, I'm participating because Hypno is."

"Why? Isn't he your boyfriend, Darwin?" Roselio asked, puzzled. "If you want to spend time with him, why don't you just ask him out the traditional way?"

Darwin didn't answer - she was too busy fangirling. Roselio didn't know it, but Froslass knew that some teen girls already called their crushes their "boyfriend" even if it wasn't official yet. That was just how they were.

"Roselio's right," Staraptor said with a frown. "Why don't you just ask him out if you want to spend time with him? Why do you have to participate in the Meteor Mash-up? I mean, there are nine other guys you can get paired up with. Including me and Roselio."

Darwin did look pop-eyed for a moment considering the fact that she might have to spend time with her annoying brother or one of his annoying friends instead of her crush, but then her fangirling act came back. "I may, but then again, I may not." She sighed happily. "Don't you see? No, of course you don't, you're too small for matters of the heart like this. You see, me and Hypno are already written in the stars. We were meant to be together. That's why even Lopunny's randomizer is going to pair Hypno with me. Because we were meant to be. You'll see."

Rationality-loving Froslass found the explanation to be nonsense - written in the stars, indeed! - but she didn't say that aloud, of course.

"I am warning you in advance that the chance is actually pretty small," Froslass said. "There is a one-tenth chance of you getting paired up with Hypno. Just warning."

"Chance, shmance," Darwin huffed, then went up the wooden stairs to her room. Roselio, Staraptor, and Froslass heard an upstairs door slam.

Froslass turned to her two friends. "I hope she does not regret her actions later," was all she said.

Roselio shrugged helplessly. "Well, we can't do anything about that! Once my sister has an idea, not even a charging Tauros can stop her. Anyway, I heard that a lot of our friends are participating in the Meteor Mash-up also!"

"Yeah, like Breloom and Lombre and Treecko and Cleffy Clefairy," Staraptor said.

"And Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott," Froslass added, finally forgetting about Darwin and her one-in-a-tenth chance.

"Yeah!" Roselio may be a rose-shaped Pokémon, but at the moment he was like an excited golden retriever. "I wonder who the rest of the participants are?"

»̶✽«̶

* * *

><p><em>That very moment, in Wish Park<em>

Lopunny was leafing through the would-be participants' forms with a small smile. She'd already gotten 7 boys and 5 girls.

She only needed 8 more.

And then the fun can really begin.

She couldn't _wait_ to say with her usual but one-of-a-kind flair:

_Let's Meteor Mash!_

* * *

><p><em>Submit Your OC!<em>

_SYOC is open! I need 3 boys and 5 girls more to participate in Lopunny's Meteor Mash-up. Fill in the OC form below and please submit your OC via review (so I can keep track of the submissions in one place)._

**OC Form**

**Name:  
><strong>**Species:  
><strong>**Gender:  
><strong>**Personality:  
><strong>**Likes/hobbies:  
><strong>**Dislikes/pet peeves:  
><strong>**What I look for in that special someone:  
><strong>**Perks of dating me:**

_If your character gets selected, get ready to see them dive headfirst into the Meteor Mash-up! _

_Basically, what's going to happen is that the 10 boys and 10 girls will be randomized and paired up. Your character can get paired up with one of mine or another reader's character. Then I will write a chapter about each pairing. Of course, your character will probably not get the Pokémon of their dreams, but that's what makes Meteor Mash-up so... chaotic. ^^_

_So, I await your OCs! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me._

_-Fujisaki Chihiro-_

* * *

><p><em>UPDATE: 1902/2014_

_Thank you for everyone who has submitted their OCs! For those who haven't submitted, I'd like to announce that the slots for the boys have all been filled. I am only accepting girls now. Also, one person can only submit one character._

_Thank you!_

* * *

><p><em>UPDATE: 2102/2014_

_I've already got 10 boys and 9 girls to participate in the Meteor Mash-up! That means the only slot available now is for one girl!_

_Once I've got all the characters, let the Meteor Mash-up begin! (Lopunny's getting quite impatient)._

* * *

><p><em>-FINAL UPDATE-<em>

_OK, I've now got 10 boys and 10 girls, which is exactly how many I'll need! SYOC is now closed! I'd like to thank everyone who submitted their character - we can finally get started! For your information, here are the participants!_

BOYS  
>1) Breloom Kinogassa (mine)<br>2) Treecko Kimori (mine)  
>3) Oshawott Mijumaru (mine)<br>4) Tepig Pokabu (mine!)  
>5) Roselio de la Verde (mine!)<br>6) Staraptor Mukuhawk (mine. yeah.)  
>7) Hypno Silvertrance (you get the message)<br>8) Nile the Riolu (from shadowssj12)  
>9) Rem the Whimsicott (from AceScrawl)<br>10) Gremlin Ombre the Sableye (from RadioactiveSableye)

GIRLS  
>1) Lombre Raindish (mine)<br>2) Cleffy Clefairy (mine)  
>3) Snivy Tsutarja (mine!)<br>4) Froslass Yukimenoko (mine!)  
>5) Darwynette de la Verde (again!)<br>6) Storm the Pikachu (from kitsunelover300)  
>7) Lizzy the Flaaffy (from Pandawootwoot)<br>8) Braixen Ter Una (from Volt Tackle)  
>9) Tori the Gardevoir (from wolfgirl12390)<br>10) Amelia the Umbreon (from Mizuki1-Kiruri13)

_(Hit it, Lopunny!)_

Lopunny: "Let's Meteor Mash~!"

_(Stay tuned on Wish Park FM!)_

_-Fujisaki Chihiro-_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Another thanks for those who submitted their characters! Finally, this is the real deal - let's see who got paired up with whom!_

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

_14 February  
><em>_Dance Zone, Wish Park_

Darwynette stood with her brother Roselio in front of Chandelure's grand tent. They were also with Darwin's good friend Altaria Cottonspores, who had agreed to accompany Darwin to the Dance Zone even though she wasn't participating in the Meteor Mash-up.

"I don't see him," Darwin hissed after tossing a few discreet looks around.

"See whom?" Roselio asked.

"Duh? My _boyfriend?_" Darwin drawled in reply, looking around furtively again. "He's late. That's weird. He's never late before. Well, once he was, but he was only ten minutes late, and us high schoolers don't count that as _late_ late; we call that _fashionably_ late."

"Maybe he decided not to participate after all," Roselio said brightly, at which her sister glared.

"Shut up, are you trying to discourage me or what? Have you seen him, Altaria?"

Altaria looked around. She saw a no-nonsense looking Pikachu, her fur glowing with yellow electricity as if she was getting ready for battle. There was a nervous Flaaffy with her hands shoved deep in her fluffy fleece. There was a quiet Gardevoir reading a book, an elegant-looking Braixen, a Sableye standing off to one corner, and a Riolu chatting with an Umbreon.

"Nope, don't see him, Darwin," Altaria told her friend.

The Grass-type groaned. "Where is my boyfrieeend?"

Suddenly Roselio exclaimed, "There!"

Darwin jumped with surprise, her hands automatically flying to the white petals on her head to make sure they were tidy. "Where? Where?!"

"Huh?" Roselio turned to his sister. "Oh sorry, no, I didn't mean Hypno. I just saw my friend Breloom over there. Sorry. False alarm." He grinned in his usual happy-go-lucky manner before going off to talk to his friends.

The Roserade stared after him with a scowl. "False alarm indeed," she grumbled under her breath.

Kind-hearted Altaria put a soothing fluffy wing on her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, he'll be here," she reassured.

"He'd better be," Darwin snarled.

...

* * *

><p>A lot of Roselio's friends were participating in the Meteor Mash-up. The particular group of friends he was walking to was from a rescue team called Team Overgrow. There was Breloom, the team's action-loving but stubborn leader; Treecko, the cool, calm, and collected team brains; sweet but shy Cleffy Clefairy; and tomboyish Lombre Raindish who loved adventure as much as a boy.<p>

"Hello!" Roselio greeted them brightly when he got near.

"Hey!" Breloom exclaimed.

"_Hola,_" Lombre said in her mother tongue.

Treecko nodded. "Good morning."

Cleffy said, "Hello," and blushed.

"Are you excited to know who you're paired up with?" Roselio asked, practically brimming with excitement.

"No," Treecko said coldly in contrast to the Thorn Pokémon's excitement. "I didn't have a say in this at all. This was all Lombre's idea."

"And Cleffy's," Lombre added defiantly. Cleffy only blushed.

"I think this would be quite a fun experience, Treec," Breloom said. "We get to meet new people and stuff. When else do you get to meet people you've never imagined meeting before?"

Treecko frowned at his friend in a disapproving manner. "You forget, Breloom, that this is a randomized pairing event," the wood gecko said. "What if instead you get paired up with someone you've already met? What if I turn out to get paired up with Tsutarja? If that happens, I am sure we'd be doing nothing but argue."

The girl Treecko was referring to was Snivy Tsutarja, another of their friends. Although she was the princess of the Arbor Area in PokéPark, she preferred going on adventures over practicing royal mannerisms. She was also rather haughty and smug, but quick-witted. Due to the wood gecko's and the grass snake's similar traits, they constantly get on each other's nerves.

Roselio turned to Cleffy, who seemed to have the curious habit of blushing whenever he was around (but he never noticed that, thank goodness).

"What about you, Clef? Are you hoping to get paired up with someone in particular?"

"S-s-someone in p-particular?" she stammered, suddenly finding something really interesting to look at on the ground. "N-n-no, I'm like the others - I'm here to m-meet new p-people."

Roselio smiled at her. "Well, that's really nice," he said brightly. "Breloom's right - this is the perfect chance to meet new people."

Cleffy nodded. "Y-yeah. I g-guess so."

...

* * *

><p>After Team Overgrow, Roselio saw Froslass and Staraptor standing with Snivy and her PokéPark friends.<p>

There was Oshawott Mijumaru, Area Keeper Samurott's assistant. He likes to see himself as a great detective or an investigator, but that means he is also quick to get suspicious and loves making up the most ridiculous conspiracy theories.

The other was Tepig Pokabu of the Crag Area. You'd think that coming from the rugged and rocky terrain of PokéPark makes Tepig the rowdy tough-guy type, but he was actually a rather docile and soft-spoken Fire-type, although he does get really determined when it comes to serious matters and values honesty very highly.

"Hello!" Roselio greeted all of them.

Staraptor turned to him. "There you are, Ro!" he exclaimed. "We were wondering where you'd got to. I thought you decided to drop out or something."

"Drop out? Of course I didn't drop out."

"That is good to hear," Froslass replied smoothly. "We were talking about what kind of Pokémon we wish we would get paired up with."

Roselio shrugged. "Well, I'm actually OK with any Pokémon as long as she's nice to talk to."

"I'd like a Pokémon of a few words," Snivy said teasingly, "unlike a Sea Otter Pokémon I _do_ know who likes to talk. A _lot._"

"Well I want someone who isn't annoying," Oshawott retorted. "Unlike some grass snake we all know."

As you can see, Snivy and Oshawott are neck and neck when it comes to joking around. Both think the other is annoying.

"I'm OK with anyone as long as she's pretty," Staraptor said shortly. "I saw a Braixen earlier. Yeah, I want someone like her. Tall and... You know. Pretty."

At that, Froslass rolled her eyes. "I on the other hand would like someone knowledgeable," she said. "We can discuss science and technology and things that really matter."

Staraptor laughed. "Y'know, Fro, I think you could really do with a funny Pokémon," he joked. "I mean, to get your mind off "things that really matter" and have some fun for a change."

Froslass' mouth formed a tight grimace as she said, "No," but if anything, Staraptor only continued to laugh.

The only thing that managed to quiet him down was Lopunny's sudden shout.

"All right, Pokémon! This is what you've all been waiting for! I'm going to announce the pairings for the Meteor Mash-up! Let's hear some noise!"

* * *

><p>...<p>

Meanwhile, Darwin and Altaria were still looking all over for Hypno and not seeing him anywhere. He was still nowhere to be seen when Lopunny said that she was going to announce the pairings.

"I don't want to participate if Hypno doesn't!" Darwin complained as she and Altaria walked back to the front of Chandelure's tent where Lopunny was standing with a microphone. The Roserade had her gaze on the ground forlornly and was waving her arms about in indignance. In short, she wasn't looking where she was going. "I don't want to get paired up with one of Roselio's annoying friends!"

"Umm, Darwin-" Altaria started, but it was too late as Darwin was already slamming into someone's back.

"Hey, what're you doing in the middle of the-" Darwin started angrily, but then the angry look on her face was replaced by a silly smile and a blush when she finally saw who it was. "Err, I mean, sorry, Hypno~! That was entirely my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going~! Hehehehe!"

Hypno whirled and met Darwin's eyes. "Darwynette? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I'm participating in the Meteor Mash-up, of course~! Ooh yees, I _love_ the Meteor Mash-up, it's a really good idea~! I didn't know you were also participating. Yeah. I didn't know that at all."

Altaria observed the stupid fan-girly look Darwin had on her face and couldn't help but pipe up with amusement, "Yeah, she didn't. At all."

However, by this time Darwin's face had taken on a radical change and she frowned.

"Oh, and by the way, Hypno, it's Darwin and _not_ Darwynette, thank you."

»̶✽«̶

After saying their "see you later"s to Hypno (and Darwin gushing "I hope you get paired up with someone nice!" before going away), Darwin and Altaria found themselves back in front of Lopunny. Altaria was still amused because the silly smile hadn't left Darwin's face.

"I told you he'd come," she said lightly. "Oh gosh, you can be so erratic when you're in front of Hypno, Darwin! One second you're a crazed fangirl, the next you're scolding him for calling you Darwynette. What's wrong with the name, anyway?"

"Nothing is wrong," Darwin said haughtily. "It just sounds like the name of some French queen from my history textbook who got beheaded."

Altaria was about to say something when Lopunny spoke into the microphone.

"All right, I'm going to announce the pairings right now! Keep your ears open, everyone!"

Darwin shot a smug look at her friend. "Now, Altaria, get ready to witness something that has been written in the stars unfold."

* * *

><p>...<p>

Lopunny looked down at the sheet of paper in her hands.

"OK, let's just start, shall we...!"

She paused dramatically. Altaria noticed that Darwin was tapping her toe impatiently, as if she couldn't wait to hear that she'd been paired up with Hypno. Altaria shook her head. She could only hope that if Darwin wasn't paired up with Hypno after all, she wouldn't be too disappointed. Like Froslass, Altaria knew that there wasn't such a thing as "written in the stars".

"Hmm, the first guy we have is Breloom Kinogassa! '_Perks of dating me: No one will ever hurt or even annoy you because they'd already eaten my fist before they could.'_ Ooooh, interestiiing, we have a Tough Guy here!" Lopunny looked down at her list and paused again for a dramatic effect. "OK, so Tough Guy Breloom will be paired up with... Braixen Ter Una! Ooh, she has a soft spot for anyone who has a lot of skills!"

Staraptor huffed in disappointment. "Aww man, that pretty Braixen's been taken!"

* * *

><p>Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen<p>

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Lopunny looked as if she was excited herself. "And that's our first pairing, folks! And now... Moving on to the second one!<p>

"Treecko Kimori! A lover of science and silence. Ooh, totally the brainy type, yeah? He's getting paired up with..."

Another dramatic silence. Darwin's toe-tapping intensified.

"Amelia the Umbreon! She loves to write... And she's good at singing! How very romantic~!"

* * *

><p>Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia<p>

* * *

><p>"Moving on... Ah, Oshawott Mijumaru, Area Keeper Samurott's young assistant! <em>'Perks of dating me: If you die, I can find your killer. I'm a detective.'<em> Oooh, isn't that just convenient? Now, Oshawott will go with... Lizzy the Flaaffy! She likes to believe that she has good wool. I hope Oshawott thinks so, too~!"

* * *

><p>Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy<p>

* * *

><p>"OK, OK, crap, can't you go any <em>faster,<em>" Darwin mumbled under her breath.

Altaria looked at her with amusement. "Be patient!"

"Now, Staraptor Mukuhawk! He loves sports and aerial acrobats! Oh, he turns out to be the daring type! He'll get paired up with the soft-spoken Tori the Gardevoir, who loves to read and study. How interesting; the daring and the book-smart types! I wonder what will happen?"

* * *

><p>Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori<p>

* * *

><p>"What's gonna happen is me taking over the mic if you don't hurry up." Another impatient comment from Darwin.<p>

Altaria laughed, but it wasn't just because of Darwin's impatience. It was also because she heard Staraptor say from somewhere behind her, "Oh, maybe not the Braixen, but Gardevoir are pretty, too. Yeah. I like that."

_Well. At least someone's having fun,_ Altaria thought.

"Roselio de la Verde! Oh, French family name, eh? How romantic! He loves Spinda's smoothies, friendly chats, and... What's this? Red bowties?"

Darwin slapped her forehead. "I can't believe that silly brother of mine actually put that down."

"...He'll get paired up with Storm the Pikachu, a tough-girl type who loves battling!"

Darwin burst out laughing. "That settles it - he's gonna have his butt kicked for sure."

* * *

><p>Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm<p>

* * *

><p>Lopunny went on, "OK, now we have Nile the Riolu! He claims to have the 'devil-may-care' attitude, so he's a totally laid-back guy. He's getting paired up with... Cleffy Clefairy! She has a talent in cooking and medicine, and loves people who listen well!"<p>

* * *

><p>Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy<p>

* * *

><p>"Next we have Gremlin Ombre the Sableye! Hmm... He seems to be quite the joker type! He loves comedy and making others laugh! He's getting paired up with Froslass Yukimenoko, scientist and a believer in rationality! That's quite the polar opposites - but then again, <em>any<em> pairing will work if both put their all into it~! First impressions are especially important~!"

"Come on, come on." Darwin was back to being impatient.

* * *

><p>Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass<p>

* * *

><p>"Rem the Whimsicott! He loves competition and, get this: he's looking for a rival! Wow~! That's unusual~! However, he also loves the violin, and philosophy, and cooking! And that's even <em>more<em> unusual~! He'll be paired up with Lombre Raindish, a tomboy who loves electric guitars, combat boots, and cooking Mexican dishes! Heheheh, I can already imagine them cooking stuff together~"

* * *

><p>Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre<p>

* * *

><p>"Come on." Darwin had to hold back her vine whips from shooting out and grabbing Lopunny's microphone. "Say it, Lopunny. Say it already!"<p>

Altaria glanced sideways at her friend. There were only four Pokémon left: Darwin herself, Hypno, Snivy, and Tepig. It could go either way.

_There's no such thing as "written in the stars",_ she thought. _I hope she won't be too disappointed..._

Lopunny continued, "OK! Another one with a French family name! Darwynette de la Verde-"

At the mention of her name, Darwin jerked her head up. "Finally," she cried out.

"She's getting paired up with...!"

Darwin turned to Altaria with a smug look. "Wait for it... _Wait for it..._"

"Tepig Pokabu!"

"See...!" Darwin started to say victoriously...

...When she seemed to crumble like an ancient artifact left to disintegrate in the wind.

"Wait. _What?_" Her mouth was hanging open, very un-French-last-name-like.

* * *

><p>Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin<p>

* * *

><p>Altaria could only pat her friend's shoulder awkwardly as Lopunny went on, "And that leaves Hypno Silvertrance, hypnotizing extraordinaire, with Snivy Tsutarja, the adventurer princess of the Arbor Area~!"<p>

* * *

><p>Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy<p>

* * *

><p>Lopunny put down her paper, took a deep breath (it's understandable, she's been chattering on and on) and finally exclaimed with her usual but one-of-a-kind flair:<p>

"Let's Meteor Mash!"

...

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: ...And there we have it! The pairings for the Meteor Mash-up! I'll begin writing their adventures (and misadventures) together in the next chapters! Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!<em>

_(...Anyway, poor Darwin. I guess that's what you get for being such a pain.)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: And here we finally start the action. I know I said I'd put each pairing in a separate chapter, but I finally decided to write a little bit about each pairing in every chapter. It keeps the suspense going._

_Enough of my chattering. Here we go._

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

The truth had finally sunk in: Darwin wasn't paired up with Hypno.

And unfortunately, the Roserade couldn't do anything about that. What has been done cannot be reversed, so she could only stand and think over and over again, "No no no I don't want to be with Tepig!"

When Lopunny told everyone to go and find their partners, Darwin didn't move.

That meant Tepig Pokabu had to go and get her.

Tepig, Darwin found, was a timid Pokémon. Starting from the moment he walked towards her, he seemed to have already found Darwin's tight expression intimidating. It wasn't hard for the fire pig to see that Darwin wasn't really enthusiastic to get paired up with him.

However, being the stalwart Tepig Pokabu, he knew that he at least had to try. Someone or the other was going to have to start a small conversation sooner or later, and since it was obvious that Darwin wasn't, he was going to have to be the one who did it.

"Umm, hello, you're Darwynette, right?" he said awkwardly once he had reached the grumpy-looking Roserade, shuffling his orange hooves. "I... I'm Tepig."

Zero points for poor Tepig.

Although the fire pig often talks with Roselio, the Thorn Pokémon had never told him the fundamental rule when it comes to interacting with sister Darwynette de la Verde.

Darwin's face instantly clouded like the sky before a raging thunderstorm.

"_Do not call me Darwynette._" She scowled, and her scowl was a particularly bitter-looking one, indeed.

* * *

><p><em>Ouch. Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin isn't going well at all.<em>

* * *

><p>Speaking of thunderstorms, Roselio had to go and meet a Pikachu named Storm. Luckily, it wasn't hard at all to find her - he only had to follow the yellow light of electricity to where she was standing. She was the Pokémon Altaria had seen earlier who looked as if she was getting ready to battle.<p>

Roselio walked over to her, smiling a signature Roselio smile.

"Hello!"

Storm looked up. "Oh, hello. You must be Roselio de la Verde."

"Yeah, that's me! Nice to meet you!" He stuck out his red rose.

"I'm Storm," the Pikachu said seriously. "Nice to meet you too."

She actually couldn't figure out what to do with his hand, since she couldn't really shake his rose petals. It would be ridiculous, and besides, Storm had battled enough Roselia to know that they didn't like having their roses messed up. In the end, she took the base of his flower. OK, so it was the equivalence of shaking someone's wrist, but it was better than pissing off someone she was supposed to spend time with.

As for the Thorn Pokémon, he may not show it but he felt a tiny jolt of electricity when she shook his hand.

_Yikes,_ he thought. _How no-nonsense. She's almost as serious as Treecko._

"Anyway, I like your name," Storm went on, though she never lost her no-nonsensical air about her. "Lopunny said it was French. Can you speak the language or something?"

"Well. _Oui._"

"Is that a yes? Try saying something, then."

Roselio laughed. "I just did."

Storm rolled her eyes. "Come on."

"OK, OK." Roselio gave in. Then he said with surprising (few Pokémon could speak more than one language) fluency, "_Je voudrais aller aux toilettes._"

Storm stared at him. "Which means?"

"I want to go to the toilet." The smile on his face was annoying. Annoying but mischievous. Storm couldn't decide whether to roll her eyes and tell him to be serious or laugh.

She apparently chose the latter.

"Well, that was very _sophisticated,_" she joked sarcastically. "Yes, very sophisticated of you."

"Why, _merci beaucoup,_" he replied, the smile still there.

Storm thought, _Wow, what a happy-go-lucky Pokémon. All smiley faces._

"Lopunny said you liked battling," the Thorn Pokémon said suddenly.

"Yes," Storm replied. She was very pleased he had brought this subject up. This was the topic she was most passionate about. "Do you battle, Roselio?"

His answer surprised - but delighted - her.

"Yeah, actually, I do!"

If Storm was pleased earlier, now she was really, really pleased. Roselio may like friendly chats, but she liked something more action-packed. Like a battle.

Although she was usually known as aggressive and no-nonsense, Storm couldn't help but smile, very slowly.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny is going to have to keep an eye on Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm. Otherwise it could get pretty messy.<em>

* * *

><p>Cleffy Clefairy, meanwhile, was stuck in her own mind. She was standing in the midst of the confusion, wondering if she should go and look for this Riolu called Nile or to stay put and wait for him to find her.<p>

_I'm beginning to feel I've been pretty foolish,_ she despaired. _Why did I ever think I'd get paired up with him and not someone among the other nine? Froslass would probably have said that the chance of my ending up with him was actually pretty small. Smart, Cleffy, smart._

She also knew that she wasn't good at these social things at all. She was just too shy. She stammered even when she was talking to her teammates in Team Overgrow. She would be even more of a wreck talking to someone she had just met.

_Nile the Riolu, whoever he is, is going to have a lousy girl to spend time with,_ she thought. _A girl named Cleffy Clefairy, who's going to stammer and blush and never actually say anything. He'll have participated in this Meteor Mash-up for nothing, because the only thing he's going to do is try to tolerate the nervous wreck in front of him. And it'll be all my fault._

She saw that all her teammates were on the move. Breloom was walking towards Braixen. Treecko was walking towards Amelia. However, she didn't see Lombre anywhere.

Suddenly she felt someone tap her shoulder. _Nile!_ She whirled with a forced smile pasted on her face, thinking, _Oh, no, the nightmare starts now._

However, it wasn't Nile. It was Lombre.

"_¡Ay caramba!_" her teammate exclaimed indignantly, clomping about in her combat boots. "Where's this Whimsicott guy? I haven't seen him anywhere. _Callate,_ d'you think he's chickened out?"

Cleffy felt a wave of relief crash over her. She dropped her stupid smile.

"L-L-Lombre! I'm g-glad it's y-you!"

"Well, of course it's me," Lombre said matter-of-factly. "Who else could it have been?"

"I thought y-you were Nile..." Cleffy bowed her head.

Lombre took one look at her friend and understood everything. She'd been friends with Cleffy for so long, and even though they were as different as night and day, they always knew how the other was feeling. Right now was the same - with just that one look, Lombre knew what Cleffy was worrying about.

"Ay-ay-ay," she said, putting an arm around Cleffy's shoulders and shaking her gently. "Don't fret, _mi amiga._ You'll do OK, I'm sure of it. You know how the song goes: 'Hold on loosely, but don't let go'? Don't worry so; just be yourself. Nile's gonna love having been paired up with you."

Cleffy blew out a long sigh. "I-I know," she said quietly. "Hold on loosely. D-don't let go. You're right, Lombre, I p-probably shouldn't w-worry too much. If I worry, I'll be even m-more of a wreck. I hope you're right that I d-don't mess up."

Lombre grinned and punched her shoulder lightly. "That's the spirit, Clefpud!" She added as a matter of fact, "And of course I'm right. I'm _always_ right."

If Lombre had a fault, it was that she wasn't really modest.

Cleffy smiled shyly. "Th-thank you, Lombre. A-and I hope your Whimsicott shows up soon, I'll r-really feel b-bad for you if he d-d-doesn't show up at all."

"_De nada,_" Lombre said, and then her face turned serious. "And yeah, he'd _better_ show up."

Suddenly there was another tap on Cleffy's shoulder. Cleffy whirled around again. She immediately regretted not having armed herself with a fake pasted-on smile because this time it really _was_ Nile the Riolu.

Cleffy blushed. "O-oh. Sorry. I m-mean, h-hello. U-um..."

She wanted to berate herself for having stammered, but it seemed as if Nile hadn't even heard her. The Dance Zone was so loud, so of course Cleffy's unconfident, inaudible voice got lost in the chaos.

Nile smiled at her. Somehow, that smile sort of reassured Cleffy. "You're Cleffy Clefairy, right?" he said. His voice was a trifle bit louder than Cleffy's.

Cleffy only nodded. She didn't even try to speak - she knew he wouldn't be able to hear her for her voice always annoyingly goes quieter every time she was nervous or shy. Well, of course, another reason was that she was also tongue-tied.

Although he was a Fighting-type, Cleffy liked the look on his face; it was friendly and soothing, as if she would always feel safe around someone like him. Or maybe it was because he was a Fighting-type; she surmised he was a good fighter.

Lombre gave her arm a meaningful squeeze, then turned to the both of them. "Well, looks like I'd better leave you two alone," she said. "Have fun~!"

She left... And Cleffy was alone with Nile.

Cleffy didn't dare look at the Fighting-type, so she kept her gaze on the ground. Nile, meanwhile, was looking around, squinting at the noisy chaos. He turned back to Cleffy.

"Hey, want to go somewhere quieter?"

Cleffy's whole face went fire engine red. Yes, if they went somewhere not as loud, he would be able to hear her tiny voice. Then she might actually pluck up enough courage to strike up a conversation.

_Hold on loosely, but don't let go._

Smiling shyly up at him, she whispered gratefully, "O-okay." Then, remembering that he might not hear her, she nodded. Just in case.

* * *

><p><em>"Hey, want to go somewhere quieter?" Nice one! Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy seems to be going well. But maybe it would be even better if Cleffy would actually start <em>talking.

_And as for Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre... Nothing's happened yet. Hmm.__ Where could Rem the Whimsicott be?_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, high up from the air, Staraptor had spotted a Gardevoir seated on a bench in front of Chandelure's tent. She was still reading a book.<p>

Staraptor landed a few paces away from the Psychic-type. He didn't want to disturb her from her reading.

That, and he actually wanted to... "observe" her first.

Tori was a pretty Pokémon. She had short bright green hair and snow-white skin. She was wearing a beautiful white dress that reached her ankles. A pair of reading glasses was perched upon her dainty nose. The book she was reading seemed to be about advanced physics.

_OK,_ Staraptor thought. _So she's a smarty, like Fro. Good Arceus, she's pretty._

He slowly went over to her. "Hey."

_Yikes, Staraptor!_ he chastised himself inwardly. _Just "hey"?_

Tori looked up from her book. "Oh. Hello." She rose, closing the book and tucking it under one arm. The hem of her white dress flowed around her ankles.

"Hey. I'm Staraptor Mukuhawk, but you can call me Staraptor." He groaned inwardly again. _Another "hey"._

She nodded her head. "My name is Tori. It's nice meeting you, Staraptor."

Staraptor was racking his brains. What should he say next to this beautiful Pokémon in front of him?

"Uh... I see you like physics, Tori?"

Tori's tranquil face lit up with a smile, and Staraptor felt relieved. It was obviously the right thing to say.

"Why, yes," she said, the smile never leaving her face. Then she went on to enthusiastically explain why physics was really fascinating, which Staraptor actually didn't listen to at all. He was too busy staring at her as she explained about hydrostatic pressure and the laws of Newton and Carnot machines and why they were so damn fun to study.

Finally, she turned the question back to him as she said, "And what about you? What do _you_ like to do, Staraptor?"

"Huh, me?" Staraptor was snapped out of his reverie. "Uhh, I love flying and aerial acrobats."

"Really?" Tori was grinning. "Did you know that air is considered a dynamic fluid as well, thus when you're flying, you're actually applying the principle of dynamic fluids? The higher the pressure, the lower the velocity, and vice versa. Since you're an avid flyer, I suppose you _have_ heard of it, right?"

"Uh, yes, I think so." If he wasn't mistaken, he'd once heard Froslass say something like that. It wasn't as if he cared, though. He didn't care about pressure and velocity - he was good at flying and that was all that mattered. He continued, "But hey, I love the actual flying more than the theoretical side of flying."

_Actual flying._

Suddenly he got an idea.

When he turned to Tori, his face was surprisingly sincere. If Roselio and Froslass were there, they wouldn't have believed their eyes.

"Tori, would you care to join me on an aerial tour of Wish Park?"

* * *

><p><em>Oooh! If Lopunny were there, she would definitely have squealed. It seems as if Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori is off to a high-flying start!<em>

* * *

><p>Treecko had by now found Amelia the Umbreon. He actually wasn't enthusiastic in participating in the Meteor Mash-up, but he had to cooperate since he was already deep in it now. Amelia was staring at nothing, so of course she was surprised when Treecko greeted her.<p>

"Good afternoon."

The Umbreon jumped and whirled around. "Oh, hello. Good afternoon to you too."

The Wood Gecko Pokémon stuck out his hand. "I am Treecko. Treecko Kimori."

Amelia shook his hand. "I'm Amelia. Nice to meet you, Treecko."

"I apologize for having surprised you earlier," Treecko went on seriously.

Amelia smiled a small smile. "No, it's all right," she said. "It was me, anyway. I was staring off."

"Staring off? Why? Is something bothering you?"

Treecko held back his tongue. Why did he say that; Amelia could think he was poking into other people's business.

"Oh, no, not that," Amelia quickly said. "I was singing a little song I made."

"Oh?" Treecko stared at her. "You like to make songs? That is none short on impressive."

Amelia blushed good-naturedly. "Yeah, I like to write songs. I sing, too, of course."

"Mm-hmm. So you are the musical kind of Umbreon. I... Um, you know." The wood gecko broke off and cleared his throat instead.

Amelia tilted her head to one side. "Huh? You what?"

Suddenly Treecko's face looked more red than green. However, the only thing he did was clear his throat again.

"Sorry, it was nothing," he said.

Amelia nodded, although she was weirded out. She had no choice but to change the subject.

"Do you mind going somewhere not as loud? All this noise is making my head spin," she said.

The wood gecko nodded. "Of course. Where would you like to go?"

Amelia thought for a moment. Hmm. She liked a good chat with cake and tea, so maybe...

"How about the Cake Zone?" she suggested.

"Agreed," Treecko said.

They started walking towards the Cake Zone part of Wish Park. Both Pokémon were quiet, so the walk was filled with silence.

However, Treecko realized that if you listened hard enough, you could hear that Amelia was singing softly.

"_Blue moon floating, blue seas sparkling. You emerge from a little egg, by the ocean. Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I. Krabby singing, Wingull winging. Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I. This is Manaphy's little lullaby._"

Treecko had never heard that song before. It must be one of those Amelia had made herself.

He swallowed. Amelia's voice was nice, and she really was good at singing.

The calm, cool, and clever wood gecko thought he detected a foreign feeling.

He felt like... singing along.

To Manaphy's little lullaby.

* * *

><p><em>Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone, Lopunny would have said. Something tells me that Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia is something worth keeping an eye on.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: Double update! I was actually planning to put Chapters 3 and 4 in a same chapter, but it ended up really long, bypassing the 4000-word count. So I've decided to put them in separate chapters. I don't know about you, but I don't really like super-long chapters. So if your character's pairing hasn't been written about yet, it's in the next chapter.<em>_ Chapter 4 is coming right up!_


	4. Chapter 4

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

...

By the time Oshawott had spotted Lizzy the Flaaffy, he'd had his "cool" act ready.

He strolled in front of her, pretending to not see her. Of course it was Lizzy who "saw" him first.

"U-uh, hello over there," she called, hurrying over to him. "Um, y-you're Oshawott, aren't you?"

Oshawott finally stopped and acted as if he'd just seen her. "Oh, hi. Yes, I'm Oshawott. Are you Lizzy?"

The Flaaffy nodded.

"Well then, I guess I'm going to have to spend time with you," Oshawott went on in an oh-so-you're-the-lucky-one voice. There was a wide smile on his face.

Lizzy just nodded again. She seemed to not know what to say. She only kept her hands shoved deep in her fleece.

Oshawott's smile sort of disappeared and he simply stared at her. _What a quiet Pokémon,_ he thought.

"D'you know where you want to go?" he asked. "D'you have any idea what we should do?"

"Uh... I don't know. Up to you," Lizzy said awkwardly.

Oshawott put on his detective face. "Hrumm, let's see. Ah, let's go to the Beach Cove!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers detective-style. "Area Keeper Samurott's going to love meeting you. Of course, he _always_ loves meeting whoever I bring there since I'm his assistant, see."

He paused and cleared his throat coolly. "That is, if you _want_ to go to the Beach Cove. A good gentleman always asks the ladies if they're willing to go somewhere; they don't decide everything for themselves, you know," he said, his smooth operator act coming back.

Lizzy nodded yet again, an awkward smile coming to her face. "OK, that sounds nice," she said softly.

And that was how they left for the Beach Cove, with Oshawott chattering about how Lizzy was going to see how good he was at beach soccer. Like Lombre, Oshawott unfortunately wasn't that modest either.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy seems to be going moderately well, Lopunny would have thought. After she rolled her eyes at Oshawott's antics, of course.<em>

* * *

><p>As Gremlin Ombre the Sableye weaved his way between the many Pokémon standing in front of Chandelure's tent, his mind was filled with thoughts.<p>

_Froslass Yukimenoko,_ he thought. _A scientist. Huh, she must be some kind of smart. No, she has to be really brainy. All scientists are brainy._

Gremlin couldn't help but feel nervous. _What if she doesn't enjoy talking with me? I know next to nothing about science._

What was the other thing Lopunny mentioned? She was a believer of rationality? That was another thing about Froslass Yukimenoko that was the exact opposite of him. Gremlin was not a believer in rationality. He just liked to joke around.

_She must also be really serious,_ he thought. _She must be that kind of person who calculates her chances of getting paired up with a certain someone before participating in the Meteor Mash-up. She'd probably say that it was only a one-tenth of a chance. And she'd say it without her face expression changing one bit._

Yet another different thing between them.

Now Gremlin was positively nervous. He was all about making people happy - that was what laughter was for, right? - but this time he wasn't sure of himself at all.

That was how he crashed into a full-on snowstorm.

It was something freezing cold, and he crashed hard into it, too - he was left staggering back and shaking his bumped head.

It was only when the stars had cleared that he finally saw what he'd crashed into.

Or rather, _who._

A snow-white Pokémon was hovering in front of him. She had cold pale blue eyes and delicate snow crystals decorating her head. She had long trailing sleeves like that of a kimono, and they were white with pale blue patterns on it. She wore a red ribbon around her slim waist. Although her face was pretty, it showed no trace of emotion at all.

Enter Froslass Yukimenoko, scientist and a believer in rationality.

She was a little bent down since she was taller than he. The pale blue eyes were staring at him, and Gremlin detected the tiniest hint of sympathy in it.

"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice smooth. "Please forgive me; I was not watching where I was going."

Gremlin quickly brushed it off with a laugh. "No, no, no! Please don't apologize! It was my fault!"

Froslass Yukimenoko didn't help him up, so Gremlin jumped up by himself, still chuckling. "Uhh, anyway, the name's Gremlin Ombre!" He smiled the sunniest smile a Sableye could manage.

"My name is just Froslass," she replied with a tiny nod. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Gremlin grinned at her. "Nice to meet you too, Just Froslass!" he said.

There was silence for a few awkward seconds.

"I am afraid you misunderstand," Froslass finally said, her cheeks getting tinged pink. "My name is Froslass. Just Froslass. Froslass Yukimenoko. I was meaning to say I do not have a nickname. I did not mean my name was actually 'Just Froslass'..."

"I knew that. I was... Joking." The Sableye gave a few feeble chuckles. _Oops, I think I'm failing fast,_ he thought. _I should have known that scientists don't understand jokes._

However, he thought he saw something else. Gremlin may be mistaken, but he thought he detected the tiniest traces of laugh lines appearing on Froslass' face.

"Of course you were," she said with a tiny, unfathomable smile.

It was only a tiny single smile, but to Gremlin's hopeful relief, it might just be a start.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass; two Pokémon as different as ebony and ivory. However, is it illogical of Lopunny to think that this pairing might actually end up somewhere?<em>

* * *

><p>Braixen Ter Una was wondering why she was here. If she wasn't mistaken, her participating in the Meteor Mash-up wasn't her idea in the first place. Maybe one of her friends pushed her to do it? Hmm. She didn't remember <em>that<em> happening. Or maybe she'd inadvertently signed up only to forget it later? That doesn't sound right, either. Although she admitted herself that she was most of the time naïve and childish, she wasn't _that_ forgetful, either.

Well. Whatever had happened, she was here now, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was surprised by a voice.

"Heya! I guess you're Braixen Ter Una?"

Braixen quickly turned around and saw a Grass-type Pokémon with a mushroom-shaped cap on his head. He was bouncing on the spot. He seemed like a really hyper Pokémon, which rather intimidated Braixen. She'd been hoping to get a quieter Pokémon.

"Yes, I am, but just call me Braixen," Braixen said. "And you're...?"

"I'm Breloom. Breloom Kinogassa, nice to meet ya." He stuck out one of his stretchy arms. Braixen shook it.

Then the Fire-type spoke again. "Random subject change; was it your idea to participate in the Meteor Mash-up?"

"Huh? Well, not really." Breloom shrugged. "At first this was my friends Lombre's and Cleffy's idea. But then I sort of agreed, since it's not so bad to meet new people and stuff, ya know?"

"Hmm," Braixen said shortly.

"What's wrong? Did ya not participate because ya wanted to?"

"That's just the problem," Braixen said. "These events aren't actually my thing, really. I don't even remember how I ended up here anyway."

"Huh." Breloom didn't seem to know what to say.

"Sorry, that was random." Braixen shook her head. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"Dunno. Up to you, I guess. What d'you wanna do?"

"Uh..." Braixen racked her brains. Looking at Chandelure's grand tent gave her an idea. "Um, how about participating in Chandelure's Dance Inferno?"

"What?" Breloom's bouncing intensified. "I ain't gonna dance! I'll do anything, anything but dance."

Braixen pouted - she did admit she was rather childish - and said, "Well, you _did_ say 'up to you'..."

"Basically, 'up to you' as long as it doesn't involve dancing." Breloom frowned as he thought. Not so long after, his face brightened. "Hey, wanna play Haxorus' Power Bash?"

"Power Bash?" Braixen pouted even more. "But that's so _rowdy!_"

"Well, then, wanna play Sigilyph's Flight of Fancy?"

Flight of Fancy? Braixen had never played Flight of Fancy, but the name appalled to her. It sounded way more girl-ish than Power Bash.

"OK," she agreed.

As soon as she said that, Breloom burst out laughing.

"I was only joking," he chuckled. "I can't fly. And neither can you. Remember?"

Huh. Braixen sometimes really hated her naïve trait. She could never know when someone was kidding and when they were being serious. She pouted again, and fortunately, Breloom seemed to take the hint.

"Sorry, sorry. Uh. How about Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption, then?"

"No!" Braixen sounded horrified. "I don't like cake. It makes me fat!"

Breloom smirked as if he was thinking something around the lines of "girls will be girls". "Well then, what shall we do?"

Braixen pouted, then finally sighed. "Ugh, OK, we'll play your Power Bash."

"Really? You'll really do it?"

"Yeah. As long as you don't pull tricks on me again."

"It's a deal!" The Mushroom Pokémon's bouncing got even more enthusiastic, if that was possible.

"Come on!" He suddenly grabbed her hand and started bouncing to the exit of the Dance Zone with her in tow.

"Whoa, wait!" Braixen cried, stumbling after him. "Gaah, you're messing up my fur! Breloom! Slow down!"

"Sorry!" he called back, and he did slow down.

A little bit.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny shakes her head with a smile as she watches Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen bounce out of the Dance Zone. Good luck, <em>_dear __Braixen, she thinks. And for Arceus' sake - slow down, Breloom!_

* * *

><p>Hypno and Snivy were by now walking in the direction of the Arbor Area in PokéPark. Like Nile and Cleffy, they were going to go somewhere quieter.<p>

They were talking about Snivy's days being a princess.

"I wonder how it feels to be royalty," Hypno mused, fingering his pendulum.

"Trust me, it sucks," Snivy said matter-of-factly. "I'd rather go on adventures than stay put doing nothing except watching everyone do their daily jobs."

Hypno turned to her. "But you _do_ go on adventures, do you?"

"Well, fortunately, yeah," Snivy replied. "Luckily my mother still lets me do stuff with Oshawott and Tepig, and sometimes Timburr of the Tech Area. Otherwise, it'd be a nightmare."

"I understand."

"Speaking of adventures, we had a really big one some time ago," Snivy went on haughtily. "It had to do with Darkrai and this very Wish Park."

"Really? Darkrai, the legendary Pokémon of darkness?" Hypno's interest was piqued.

"Yeah. The _tough _legendary Pokémon of darkness." Snivy couldn't help herself.

Hypno's eyes widened. He seemed really interested in Snivy's tale.

"Tell me more," he said, staring at the victorious grass snake.

* * *

><p><em>Well. It's a good thing Darwin didn't see Hypno's interaction with Snivy, or she would totally have freaked out at Hypno's obvious interest in Snivy's adventures. Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy is moving forward... And the grass snake is in the lead.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: And that's the kick-start of every pairing! (That is, except Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre, but that's because I've got "other ideas" for it, so please bear with me! I'll keep the goods coming! ^^) I also hope I've gotten the submitted characters right...<em>

_Also, I know that you don't need to be able to fly to play Flight of Fancy, but let's just... pretend you do._

_Hmm. I wonder what Darwin's going to do about that current situation, indeed._

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Ta-daa! Finally, the next chapter! Sorry this one took long, but at least it was finally done with the help of some Avenged Sevenfold songs. Anyway, since the pairings are all getting together, there's going to be a lot going on, so this time will be a triple update! *waves red and blue roses*_

_Update #1: Oshawott x Lizzy, Rem x Lombre, Hypno x Snivy, Breloom x Braixen._

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

Oshawott and Lizzy finally reached the Beach Cove.

"...And that's how I defeated Timburr's team just within minutes of the full time," Oshawott was saying. "The Tech Area guys are good, you know. Instead of kicking the ball, they hit it with their squared logs. You can imagine how powerful their shots are... But as you can see, my team won nevertheless."

"U-um... That's... Great?"

"Of course it was great!" Oshawott boasted. "OK, so maybe Tepig _did_ score two goals with his Heat Crash attack, and Snivy even scored three, but I was the one who scored the last goal when our scores were even. So I was the one who snagged the victory, you know what I mean?"

"Uh, that's, um, great, Oshawott." Lizzy buried her hands deeper into her fleece.

"I suppose it is." Oshawott smiled smugly. "Anyway, here we are! Welcome to our beautiful Beach Cove!" He waved his hands commercial-style.

However, after Lizzy had taken a good look at the panorama, she had to agree that Oshawott was right. The beach was of the most beautiful golden-brown sand she had ever seen, and lazy azure waves lapped at the shore. Further inland, there were groves of palm trees and little shrubbery. There was a tall rambling lighthouse and a wooden boardwalk extending out to sea. She could see Alomomola swimming about lazily, Wingull flying over the beach, and a group of dancing Maractus.

"Come on, we'll go meet Area Keeper Samurott," Oshawott said, walking towards the lighthouse. Lizzy followed him.

Samurott turned out to be a dark blue otter Pokémon with a white beard. Oshawott introduced Lizzy to him, and she stammered an awkward greeting. She thought Samurott would be severe, but he turned out to be very pleasant as he greeted her back.

"Lizzy's going to watch me play beach soccer," Oshawott announced proudly.

Despite his rugged appearance, laugh lines creased Samurott's face.

"Oh, beach soccer? You mean the sport in which you ran right into Drifblim's wooden sign when you were playing against the Tech Area team, Oshawott?"

"Area Keeper!" cried Oshawott with a blush as Lizzy let out an awkward laugh.

...

After a few more minutes chatting with Samurott, Oshawott took Lizzy back to the beach. Timburr and his friends from the Tech Area were already there, playing around with the ball.

"Hey, Oshawott!" Timburr exclaimed, running over. "Come to play?"

"Yeah!" Oshawott answered. "And I'm gonna beat you again."

"We'll see about that," Timburr smirked. Then he noticed Lizzy. "Oh, who's this?" That was when he remembered that Oshawott was participating in the Meteor Mash-up. "Oh! Is this your Meteor Mash-up friend?"

"Yeah. Timburr, meet Lizzy," Oshawott replied. "And Lizzy, this is my friend Timburr. He's one of those whom I beat at beach soccer."

"But that won't happen again." Timburr rolled his eyes. "Anyway, nice to meet you, Lizzy. Hey, why don't you join us?"

"P-play b-b-beach soccer?" gaped Lizzy.

"That's a good idea!" Oshawott beamed at her. "Yeah, do play with us!"

"B-b-but I thought I was just g-going to watch. And I'm not good at sports," Lizzy protested, but it was futile.

Oshawott laughed. "Watch? Where's the fun in _that?_ And whether you're good or not doesn't matter." He snickered at Timburr. "As long as you've got me in the team, we won't lose!"

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy seems to be coming along pretty well (when we ignore the fact that Oshawott has abandoned his own "a gentleman always asks the ladies if they're willing to do something" rule, of course).<em>

_Can Lizzy survive beach soccer, or will she run into any wooden signs?_

_Lopunny says the way she has said to Braixen earlier, "Good luck, dear Lizzy!"_

* * *

><p>...<p>

Leaving Oshawott and Lizzy in the Beach Cove, we return to Wish Park's Dance Zone and zoom in on a Whimsicott who was jumping out of the poster portal that connects PokéPark and Wish Park and landed on the ground inelegantly.

"Dear Arceus," he grumbled.

He quickly picked himself up and ran towards Chandelure's big tent breathlessly.

"Crud... Huff, puff... Crud. Gotta go faster... Huff... Puff... Wheeze..."

He was extremely late...

And extremely annoyed.

He remembered how he had been listening to the radio back at home in the Pokémon Square when an announcement came on and said that he was one of the participants of the Meteor Mash-up.

Well. All that sounds normal, right?

Yes, all that _would_ sound normal if Rem the Whimsicott had actually signed up for the Meteor Mash-up.

Which he had not.

The next second the phone had rung, and after recovering from his shock, he had picked it up. It turned out that one of his friends was on the other end of the line.

"Go for it, man," was all he'd said, punctuated with held-back chuckles, and that was when Rem finally understood.

"You signed me up!"

...

And that was the tragic story that ended with him running breathlessly in the Dance Zone instead of playing video games at his house. Even worse, he was supposed to meet a _girl._

Rem promised he would get back at his friend once this nightmare was over, but right now, he had to meet (and tolerate) someone named Lombre Raindish.

Finally, he arrived in front of Chandelure's tent. The area was already pretty much empty - all the other pairings must have gone somewhere else. Even Lopunny had gone inside. The only Pokémon there was a lone Lombre, sitting on a bench in front of the tent facing away from him. She was wearing a skull-patterned bandanna and combat boots. This, Rem thought, must be Lombre Raindish.

He hurried over.

"Huff, puff... Sorry... I'm late."

Lombre stood up from the bench with a little start and turned around to face him.

After that, Rem would have loved to tell her why he was late (and that it wasn't his fault), but she'd beaten him to it before he could.

"Caramba, I've been waiting for you!" she exclaimed in exasperation. "Where've you been? I thought you'd totally chickened out and decided not to come after all because of some weird reason."

"Yeah, nice you meet you too," Rem mumbled.

"Why're you late, anyway?"

"Well," Rem said nonchalantly, "it was because I'd only known I was even in the Meteor Mash-up just, oh, I dunno, half an hour ago?"

Lombre turned to him. "What?"

"This wasn't my idea in the first place," Rem said, his face red. "I didn't sign up for this, OK?"

She glanced at him quizzically. "Then why...?"

Rem huffed and turned away, feeling pathetic. Then he mumbled under his breath, "...My friend signed me up."

There was a moment of silence...

...And then Lombre burst out laughing!

"Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay!" she guwaffed. "Dear lord Arceus, that's the best prank I've ever heard of! I gotta meet that friend of yours. I have a feeling he's _un muchacho bueno._ A good guy."

"He is _not,_" Rem said pointedly. "And I swear I'm gonna get even with him once this is over."

But Lombre didn't hear him as she was too busy laughing her bandanna-wrapped head off.

After what seemed like forever, Lombre's laughter subsided a little and she went on thoughtfully, "I should've pulled that prank on Treecko. I kinda pushed him to participate in this, but it would've been funnier if I'd simply signed him up without him knowing. Huh, why didn't I think of that?"

Rem glared at her.

"Don't you dare," he snapped. "Have some pity towards your Treecko friend. Trust me, it sucks."

Lombre sneered at him. "Of course it does. Isn't that the whole point?" She shook her head. "Anyway, I don't think I've introduced myself properly. _Me llamo_ Lombre Raindish. My name's Lombre Raindish." She extended a hand.

"I'm Rem," the Whimsicott said shortly, shaking her hand. Then he lapsed into silence.

So it was Lombre who asked, "Uh, what do you want to do now?"

Rem shrugged. "Eh, up to you."

Lombre thought for a moment, then suddenly grinned a meaningful grin. "Lopunny said you liked cooking. Plot twist: I like cooking too. My teammates always say that I cook the best quesadillas anywhere and they're practically addicted to them," she said, her grin getting wider and wider. "So, want to have a Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption face-off? Don't worry, I'll make sure to go easy on you."

At first, Rem hadn't been listening that well and only shrugged. "OK, we'll play Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption if it's-"

He paused when the total weight of her words sank in. Then he glared at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there _Señorita._ Are you saying you're _better_ than me at cooking?"

Lombre looked smug. "What do you think, _mi compadre?_"

Rem's face went red. OK. First, his friend had signed him up for something he really didn't like. And now, he was stuck with this annoying combat boots-wearing girl named Lombre Raindish. It was high time something went his way today, and besides, Rem loved nothing more than a good competition.

"Bring it on," he said.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre is finally kicking off. They may think the other is annoying now, but we'll see how it will develop.<em>

_"What do you think, Wish Park FM listeners?" Lopunny would have asked. "How do you think this pairing will end up?" ^^_

* * *

><p>OK, we do know that Hypno and Snivy were going to go to the Arbor Area, but that doesn't mean they were going to go straight there. They decided to go the long way around, walking through the Power, Cake, and Flight Zones of Wish Park before returning to the Dance Zone to hop through the poster portal. Then they'd end up directly in the Arbor Area.<p>

But why did they take the long way around?

Because both Hypno and Snivy liked to chat, that's why.

First, Snivy was interested in Hypno's pendulum and asked about the subject of hypnotism. Fortunately, Hypno wasn't only interested in the actual hypnotizing, but also in the anatomical and psychological side of it (unlike Staraptor). That being said, he spent the whole walk through the Cake and Flight Zones talking about it, and Snivy didn't mind at all. They even stopped for a moment in the Power Zone because Hypno was going to show Snivy how to hypnotize people.

"Oh, yeah. Real hypnotizing, that I gotta see." The grass snake's eyes were wide.

Hypno stared at her and chuckled with amusement. "OK, I'll gladly show you. But who should we hypnotize? I can't hypnotize _you;_ you won't get to see a thing."

Snivy looked around but unfortunately, the only Pokémon there were random Pokémon. They couldn't hypnotize someone they didn't know because he might mistake their innocent intentions for something criminal.

She was about to turn back to Hypno with disappointment when she suddenly saw someone she did know.

"Hey, Breloom!" she raised her voice. "Breloom, can you come over here for a minute?"

...

* * *

><p><em>Well, looks like Hypno and Snivy have finally found a hypnotist target. We'll see soon enough how it turns out - is Hypno really <em>that_ good? Maybe his talent in hypnotism is what makes Darwin fall for him..._

_Anyway, Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy is going really well! It's a good thing both are passionate about learning and gaining new knowledge, like Snivy with Hypno's hypnotism and Hypno with Snivy's big adventure._

* * *

><p>...<p>

Breloom and Braixen were about to enter Haxorus' dojo in the Power Zone when Breloom heard someone call his name. He looked around and saw Snivy and Hypno standing a few meters away.

He was still holding Braixen's hand when he bounded over so that meant Braixen was back to following him and stumbling and letting out exclamations about her messy fur.

"Hey there!" Breloom greeted Hypno and Snivy. "What's up?"

"Hypno's going to show me how to hypnotize someone with a pendulum," Snivy explained. "Would one of you two like to be the volunteer?" She looked back and forth between Breloom and Braixen.

"Yikes! Hypnotized? You mean in which we'll be unconscious and ultimately under your control?" Braixen looked horrified and stepped back. "No, thanks! That sounds scary!"

"Hah!" Breloom snorted. "There ain't anything scary about being hypnotized. It's just like falling asleep for a little while, that's all."

Braixen looked indignantly at him. "In that case, why don't _you_ try it?"

"Gladly!" Breloom said coolly.

Snivy and Hypno exchanged meaningful glances. "Great!" Snivy exclaimed. "OK, Hypno. I'd like to see what you can do!"

Hypno stepped in front of Breloom. "I want you to follow the movement of my pendulum with your eyes," he started, his voice suddenly getting deep and eerie.

"OK," Breloom said lightly.

Hypno began to swing it right and left. "OK, there is nothing to worry about because this will be over quickly," he went on. "But you're getting a little bit sleepy... In fact, you feel like you want to go to sleep, like, right now. And that's what I want you to do. You're very, very sleepy... Your eyelids cannot stay open much longer... You're slowly falling asleep..."

Breloom's eyes were slowly but surely closing, and when Hypno suddenly snapped his fingers, he practically collapsed onto the ground snoring like a baby T-rex.

"Waah!" Braixen gasped in surprise. "He fell asleep!"

"Huh. That was pretty cool," even hard-to-please Snivy had to admit.

"I think he looks rather cute like this," Braixen suddenly added. "He looks like a sleeping baby Litleo."

"Aww. A cute sleeping baby Litleo, is it," Snivy teased, shooting meaningful looks at Braixen, who just realized the full weight of her words.

"I didn't mean it _that_ way," she huffed quickly, folding her arms in front of her.

Snivy smirked at her before staring back at the sleeping Breloom. "What else can you make him do besides snore our ears off?" she asked Hypno.

"Can you tell him to imitate a Torchic?" Braixen piped up.

"Sure." To Breloom, Hypno said, "Now you are a Torchic."

Instantly, the Mushroom Pokémon jumped up and began to flap his arms like wings and peck at the ground, squeaking, "Torhic! Chic chic chic torchic!"

Braixen laughed. "Nice one!"

"Can you make him say stuff?" Snivy asked.

"Sure you can," Hypno replied. "Just tell me what you want him to say."

Snivy told it to Hypno, and he turned to Breloom again while repeating Snivy's phrase.

Breloom stopped acting like a chicken and in a really flat voice droned, "Snivy is the coolest, most badass Pokémon in the whole wide world and is unbeatable by anyone, not even by myself and Oshawott."

"And Darkrai," Snivy added as an afterthought. Hypno repeated this.

"And Darkrai," Breloom droned.

Braixen had been giggling, but now realized that people in the Power Zone were beginning to give strange looks in their direction. They'd obviously never seen a Mushroom Pokémon act like a Torchic before.

"I think we'd better put him out of his misery," she said. "People are beginning to stare."

"They're staring at Breloom, not at me," Snivy said with a frown, but she did reluctantly let Hypno wake him up with a simple snap of his fingers.

Breloom blinked and shook his head. "Uh... What?"

"How does being hypnotized feel?" Hypno asked.

The whole thing came back to Breloom's memory and he stuck his nose in the air. "I was right. It was exactly like having a little nap."

"Yeah," Snivy agreed with an annoying smile, "a little nap in which you acted like a Torchic, snored like a little baby Litleo and said 'Snivy is the coolest, most badass Pokémon in the whole wide world and is unbeatable by anyone, not even by myself and Oshawott. And Darkrai'."

"Wait. What?" Breloom began to notice that practically everyone there was staring at him strangely. "Wait, what exactly did I say?"

"Come on, I'll tell you all about it in Haxorus' dojo." Braixen tugged on his arm as if she was impatient to go. Maybe she was afraid that Snivy would tell him that she'd said he looked "cute like a sleeping baby Litleo". No way was she going to let Breloom know she'd said that.

"Huh, OK. Whatever ya say." Breloom still looked blank as a red-faced Braixen carted him away.

Snivy snickered as she watched them go. "Those two," she said with a chuckle.

"Come on, we'd better be going, too," Hypno said. "You did say we were going to see the Arbor Area."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't forget." Snivy nodded. "Let's go, then!"

* * *

><p><em>...Aww. Cute like a sleeping baby Litleo, huh?<em>

_Like Oshawott x Lizzy and Hypno x Snivy, Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen is also going rather well, Lopunny is happy to say! After this they're going to play Haxorus' Power Bash, and we can only wait and see how that'll turn out!_

_Once again: Aww! Lopunny can't stop fangirling._


	6. Chapter 6

_Make way for the second update!_

_Update #2: Nile x Cleffy, Tepig x Darwin, Staraptor x Tori, Gremlin x Froslass._

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

Nile and Cleffy were walking in the Crag Area. They had popped out of the poster portal in the Power Zone and appeared there. Unlike Hypno and Snivy, Nile and Cleffy didn't have any fixed destinations so they found themselves simply wandering around.

"Why did you participate in the Meteor Mash-up, Cleffy?" Nile asked.

Cleffy didn't know what to say. Nile may have asked that out of simple curiosity, but Cleffy couldn't help but wonder if it was because he'd noticed how nervous she was, and was wondering why she'd signed up if she wasn't that type of person who was eager to meet new people.

So, yeah. When she told Roselio she was participating to meet new people when they first came to Wish Park was a big lie. Truthfully, Cleffy was like Darwin - she was actually hoping to get paired up with a certain someone.

But of course she couldn't say that to Nile, or she might hurt his feelings.

"Uh, I just thought it w-would be f-fun," Cleffy said, immediately feeling bad for lying. "Besides, all m-my teammates all are for the idea and are p-participating."

Another lie. Treecko wasn't exactly "all for the idea".

Nile smiled. "Yeah, that's why I participated, too," he said, ignoring the silence that had ensued before Cleffy answered. Cleffy could actually believe him, because Nile really did seem like one of those who were enthusiastic when it comes to meeting people he'd never seen before.

Cleffy sighed. Compared to Nile, she was hopeless at this.

Eventually they wandered into the caves that led out of the Crag Area.

"It's r-really h-h-hot here," Cleffy stammered. She was right; the caves were humid and, to make it worse, treacherous because the pathways were made of rock surrounded by lava pools.

"I w-wonder why no one ever thought of c-covering them up," Cleffy went on as she stared cautiously at the pools of steaming red liquid. "Th-they are d-d-dangerous!"

"Maybe people thought they were beautiful and would make a good tourist attraction," Nile said.

"Th-the only tourists who would go h-here are t-tourists who aren't s-scared of getting f-fried," Cleffy said sarcastically. She had no intention whatsoever to joke, but Nile laughed at her sarcasm. The sound was soothing that Cleffy found herself chuckling too, albeit still rather shyly.

"Anyway," Nile said, "be careful of the wild Pokémon here. I think they're rather cranky." He was referring to the group of Swoobat living in the cave. Although most of them were hanging upside down and clinging to the rocky ceiling, some could be seen flying. They screeched at any Pokémon who got too near.

"O-oh, g-great."

Nile turned to her. "Want to go back?"

Cleffy paused. She did want to go back, but she didn't want to seem like a total loser. Besides, there wasn't anything to do in the Crag Area anyway except for the Battle Tournament (and Cleffy was even more loath to participate in that) so they really needed to go out of the Crag Area. Unfortunately, the only way out was through this cave.

"N-no, I'm fine," Cleffy said quickly.

"OK, if you say so." Nile was now climbing up a set of stone stairs, then extended a hand to help Cleffy up. She took it and climbed up the stairs, only daring to look at the ground since she could practically feel her cheeks heating up.

The plateau they were now on was even bumpier than the one below. It was practically littered with stones and small rocks.

That was when disaster struck, for it was one of these rocks that clumsy Cleffy tripped over...

...And almost crashed into a group of Swoobat eating berries on the ground.

The surprised Swoobat immediately took to the skies with a series of indignant shrieks, and the next second they were flapping their big leathery wings and heading straight for her!

* * *

><p><em>Yikes! If Lopunny was fangirling earlier, she's now cowering with fear. She has once accidentally angered a Swoobat in that very cave, and she doesn't hesitate to say that it was an experience she wouldn't like to go through again.<em>

_Ignoring that fact, though, Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy is going... well...? But of course it would be much, much better if Cleffy could get over her shyness, and her disappointment of not getting paired up with that certain someone!_

_(Who is that certain someone, anyway? Well, Lopunny doesn't seem to know that either, sorry. ^^")_

_Anyway... Cleffy's a rescue team Pokémon, supposedly used to a life of danger and risks. So she should be able to handle herself in front of an angry group of Swoobat._

_...Right?_

* * *

><p>Now we look at the so far most disastrous pairing in this Meteor Mash-up! We had left off where Tepig called Darwin by the name Darwynette, which, as you can imagine, totally annoyed our Roserade. After that, Darwin had huffed and stormed away, leaving Tepig stupefied as to what he had done wrong. After all, he didn't know that Darwin didn't like to be called Darwynette, so it wasn't really his fault. Poor Tepig.<p>

Now, he was watching open-mouthed at the vanishing figure of Darwin.

The next second, he was chasing after her.

_Great. The person I'm supposed to spend time with hates me._

"Darwin! Wait up!" he called. "Please wait. I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't like to be called by your real name!"

Darwin finally stopped so abruptly that Tepig almost crashed into her. She turned around, and the fire pig saw that her face was still as bitter as a stormy night.

"Darwynette sounds like the name of some French queen in my history book who got beheaded, OK?" she repeated what she'd earlier said to Altaria. "That's why I don't like that name and whoever calls me by that name." As an afterthought she added, "Except for Hypno."

"Well, I'm really sorry," Tepig said breathlessly. "I didn't know."

"Yeah. Don't worry, I forgive you," Darwin replied coolly. "It must be because that little brother of mine has never told you anything, right?" She turned and started to walk away.

Tepig blinked. "Wait! Where are you going?"

Darwin turned around a few paces away.

"I'm going to look for Hypno," she said. Then she turned and began to walk away again.

Tepig simply stared at her, dejected. He'd completely failed. Even Oshawott had gotten to a nicer start than him, and Oshawott was more often than not annoying.

"I'm sorry," he called again.

"Don't worry. I forgive you. It isn't your fault," Darwin called back. But she didn't come back.

Tepig was unsure whether or not to follow her. Even if he wasn't good at things like this, he did know that girls didn't like to be followed and bugged whenever they were upset. It was probably better to leave her alone.

He actually couldn't understand her. He'd only _called her by the wrong name,_ for Arceus' sake. He thought she was rather overreacting.

...Or maybe there was something about this Hypno guy?

Maybe Darwin had actually hoped to get paired up with Hypno? That would explain why she was already so disappointed in the first place. Then to make things worse, he'd called her by the wrong name. It was a whopping combo that annoyed Darwin.

In the end, he simply called, "Please come back when you feel better. I'd love to start over."

"Yeah. I'll come back later," Darwin replied unconvincingly.

And that was how he found himself taking over the part of Lombre.

Sitting alone on the bench in front of Chandelure's grand tent, unsure and waiting.

* * *

><p><em>Aah! Lopunny feels positively heartbroken. Things have taken a more dramatic but disastrous turn for Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin. Poor innocent Tepig doesn't know what hit him, and he just can't win. As for Darwin, she's an ambitious (or is that over-ambitious?) Roserade shooting for the moon (aka. Hypno), and she is not about to settle down with landing among the stars.<em>

_Hmm, I wonder how this dramatic love story will go?_

_However, despite everything, Lopunny still can't help acting like a reality show host._

_"Is Darwin overreacting?_

_Will she come back to Tepig, and will they start over?_

_Or will Tepig be left waiting the whole time in this painful uncertainty?_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!"_

* * *

><p>Darwynette de la Verde had had enough. Yet another one who called her by her real name. How did <em>that<em> happen? Especially when Tepig was one of Roselio's friends. She was surprised her brother never said anything about that to Tepig.

What happened to written in the stars, anyway? Why had she ended up with Tepig Pokabu instead of with Hypno? She didn't understand. Well, however, she'd soon fix that. She was going to find Hypno and make sure that grass snake hasn't done anything disastrous to her boyfriend.

Darwin was storming angrily out of the Dance Zone when she got slapped in the face with physics formulas.

...

A few minutes before Darwin took a load of physics formulas to the face, Staraptor and Tori had been flying above the Dance Zone. It had been a relatively smooth fly. However, Tori had been clutching both Staraptor's feathers and her book. She had to admit that she was scared at first since she very seldom goes flying.

However, after she had gathered enough courage to try and look down, she discovered how magical and enjoyable flying was. She could see the whole of the circus-themed Dance Zone below, decorated with twinkling multicolored lights and patterned tents, the biggest, of course, belonging to Chandelure. In the distance, she could see the dojos of the Power Zone, the futuristic neon lights of the Flight Zone, and buildings made to look like sweet treats in the Cake Zone. Her paranoid fingers finally loosened on Staraptor's feathers. Staraptor himself smiled because he could feel Tori's fear melting away.

But now, it was time to try something else.

"Ready to go a bit faster?" he asked.

"Uh... I don't know..." Tori demurred.

"Don't worry, it'll be a breeze," Staraptor assured her, and without waiting for her answer, he suddenly accelerated. Unfortunately for Tori, what Staraptor meant by "a bit" was actually quite a _lot._

"Wh-whoaaaaa!" Tori cried, practically making herself flat against Staraptor's back.

"Isn't this awesome?" Staraptor called over the whistling of the wind. "Don't you just love fast-flying? Next we're going to try something even better: aerial acrobatics! The first thing we're going to do is a loop-the-loop!"

"A loop-the-loop?" Tori cried out. She hoped her glasses wouldn't fall off.

"Hang on tight!" Staraptor exclaimed, and he suddenly did a high-speed 360 degree loop in mid-air. Tori felt her stomach get flipped before it was normal again in a split second.

Well. Maybe "normal" isn't the right word, either, because the next moment Staraptor saw something that made him frown deeply.

"Errm, Tori, would you explain to me why I just saw a bunch of relativity formulas float past...?"

"It's my book!" Tori cried, struggling to be heard over the wind. "You see, it's technically not a book; it's still a manuscript."

Staraptor's eyes widened. "...No."

"Yes. So it hasn't been published yet, and I've only tied them together with a cord..."

"No."

"Yes. The pages sort of... You know... Got scattered."

Staraptor groaned. "Hold on!"

He did a sudden drop, going after the page from Tori's manuscript. Tori was back to clutching his feathers tightly, her white skirt fluttering. When Staraptor finally got to the particular page, he grabbed it with his talons.

"Got it!"

"Great," Tori said breathlessly. "Now we've only got thirteen pages left to catch."

"_What?!_"

"Yeah," Tori replied shortly. "Approximately, I've missed thirteen pages from my manuscript..."

Her statement was proven right when another page floated right past Staraptor's line of vision, this time containing formulas on static electricity.

* * *

><p><em>Ah. There's nothing like going fast-flying and getting a load of Physics formulas to the face. Staraptor and Tori are going to have to zip around quickly if they hope to recover all of the lost pages, though. And, of course, there's one page that flew right into Darwin's face, and Staraptor and Tori need to hurry and get it before the grumpy Roserade decides to throw it away, or, even worse, to use it as a tissue to blow her nose into.<em>

_Or something._

_Anyway, Lopunny rather likes Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori. It's a high-flying but innocent pair that inadvertently gets into trouble. This pairing is also going quite well, Lopunny is delighted to say!_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Froslass and Gremlin were silent because both of them were thinking about what to do and say next.<p>

Gremlin thought of going into Chandelure's tent to watch the Dance Inferno, but then wondered if Froslass would like it. She didn't seem to be the type who liked to move much; maybe she liked dancing even less. Or maybe she liked to watch dancing even though she didn't like to actually dance? Was that even possible?

The only thing Gremlin knew was no, no more jokes.

Froslass, on the other hand, considered visiting Reuniclus' lab in PokéPark, then quickly dismissed the thought. _Visiting the lab? What are you, Froslass? A nerd? Gremlin is not going to enjoy visiting labs. No, he is not that type at all. _Then what should they do?

The only thing Froslass knew was that Gremlin liked jokes.

_Aha! Jokes!_

She cleared her throat. "Ahem. Gremlin, I know you like jokes."

_Oh no,_ Gremlin groaned inwardly, but didn't show any obvious signs of reluctance to talk about jokes again. He was just glad someone had decided to start a conversation. They really were in need of something to break the awkward silence, and if Froslass was going to talk about jokes again, he was just going to have to play along.

He only laughed uncertainly. "Yeah, I do like jokes."

"That is very well, since I happen to have a few of my own. May I ask for permission to recite them?"

"Of course!" Gremlin exclaimed. "And no need to be so formal, Froslass. With me you can crack as many jokes as you want!" Another uncertain laugh.

"Very well, here I go." Froslass paused. "OK, so two chemists walk into a bar."

"OK." Gremlin nodded as if he was totally following her, although he'd had a bad feeling about where this joke was going. Two _chemists?_ This was _not_ a good sign.

"The first chemist says, 'I'd like some H2O, please'."

"Uh-uh." Gremlin tried to look as interested as he could, though his heart had sunk even lower. _What kind of Pokémon would go into a bar and ask for some H2O?_

Froslass went on, "And the second chemist says, 'I'd like some H2O too."

"OK, and then?"

Froslass smiled. "The second chemist dies!" She burst out laughing (daintily).

Gremlin was speechless for a few seconds. Then he recovered and forced himself to laugh. He knew that nothing was more embarrassing than cracking a (seemingly) really funny joke and no one laughed, and if there was anything Gremlin hated, it was upsetting other people.

"Uh... Hahahahahahah! That was... funny! Hahahaha!"

OK, yeah. He was fully acting. He actually didn't understand Froslass' joke at all. And he had to admit that he was horrified by the punchline. What kind of joke ended with "the second chemist dies"?

Froslass seemed happy with his response and she smiled sweetly. "Ah, I am glad you understand my joke," she said. "I am glad we are on the same wavelength. I told Roselio and Staraptor this exact same joke, and they did not understand it. They did not know that 'H2O too' is a pun for 'H2O2', which is a substance with dangerous effects towards our body. That is why H2O2 naturally goes through metabolism in our liver, broken into water and oxygen, which have no negative effects on our body at all. So, by saying 'I'd like some H2O too', the second chemist is mistaken to be asking for H2O2, and he died upon consuming it."

Then she stopped herself. "Oh, I am sorry. It seems as if I have been rambling."

"No, it's OK." Gremlin still tried to sound upbeat. _Yikes, Froslass' jokes were so scientific that she had to explain them at the end._

"Anyway, I am glad you like chemistry jokes," Froslass went on enthusiastically, "since I happen to have another one."

Gremlin smiled weakly. "OK, shoot."

"I heard Oxygen and Potassium went dating."

"Huh?" Gremlin blinked.

"Uh... You are supposed to ask how it went," Froslass gave him a hint.

"Oh, so how did it go?" Gremlin played along.

"It went OK!" Froslass laughed again.

This time Gremlin didn't even have the strength to pretend he was laughing. This joke was even more absurd than the former.

Froslass stopped laughing. "I apologize; do you not understand it?"

"Uh..." Gremlin didn't know whether to pretend he did or just tell the truth. In the end, he decided on the latter.

"Sorry... No."

"Oh, forgive me since I was so forward as to enjoy that little joke alone." Froslass regained her cool composure. "Umm, so oxygen in the periodic table of the elements is written as O, right?"

"Uh... Right?"

"And potassium is better known as K. Put them together and what do you get? OK."

"Oh." Gremlin laughed weakly. "Right. I understand now."

"I apologize," Froslass said again.

"No, there really isn't anything to apologize for," the Sableye said quickly. "I just wish my knowledge on science was as impressive as yours, Froslass."

A tiny hint of pink crept onto her cheeks. If you hadn't been paying attention, you would have missed it. "Why, thank you, Gremlin," she said.

Then both she and the Sableye fell silent again, racking their brains and wondering what else they could do, what else they could talk about. Gremlin still had the Dance Inferno in his mind, whereas Froslass was trying to push away thoughts of the lab.

But although they were silent, the Sableye was shuffling his feet shyly, and if you looked pretty closely, you could even see that the pink blush still lingered on the Ice-type's pale cheeks.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny has to admit that even she didn't understand Froslass' jokes earlier. Then again, she wasn't a Pokémon of science, she was a Pokémon of showbiz.<em>

_...But Lopunny also has something else in mind. Isn't is cute how both Gremlin and Froslass are silent because they're thinking about what the other would like or not like to do? :-3_

_Or, like Darwin, maybe Lopunny's only overracting?_

_But if so, what's with the long blush, dear Froslass?_


	7. Chapter 7

_Finally, here's the third update!_

_Update #3: Treecko x Amelia and Roselio x Storm._

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

Treecko and Amelia had by now reached the Cake Zone. The walk there had been filled with Amelia's beautiful singing. They sat at an outdoor table of a cafe directly opposite Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption building. A Vanilluxe waitress came over to take their order.

"I'd like some tea, please," both Treecko and Amelia somehow said at the same time. They glanced at each other.

"OK, with milk or with sugar?" the Vanilluxe asked.

"Milk, please," they both said again. Another surprised exchange of glances.

Vanilluxe didn't seem to notice anything. "Please wait a moment," she said, then left.

Amelia chuckled. "Well, Treecko, it seems as if we have quite some things in common."

Treecko nodded, his expression showing amusement. "...What a coincidence."

Amelia said, "Hmm, we both like tea, and we both like it with milk, we're both the type of Pokémon of a few words... Well, the only difference is probably that you are a rescue team Pokémon and I am an ordinary Pokémon with a passion for music... Since you're a rescue team Pokémon, you must be a tough fighter. As for me, I just love singing, I guess..." She shrugged with a grin.

"Huh... About that..."

_As for me, I just love singing, I guess..._

_Amelia, you don't know this, but we're more alike than you previously thought._

"About singing... I actually, you know..."

Amelia tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Hmm? You what?"

"Yeah, you what?"

Suddenly there was a loud voice with an obvious Spanish accent. Treecko and Amelia looked up to see Lombre and a Whimsicott coming over.

"You what, Treecko?" Lombre smirked as she got closer with Rem following behind.

Treecko's face interestingly got redder than green. "N-nothing." He abruptly changed the subject. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to have a Cake Contraption face-off," Lombre replied.

Treecko rolled his eyes. "That's so you."

Lombre only grinned. "Anyway, this is Rem," she introduced the Whimsicott to her teammate and Amelia.

Amelia smiled. "Hello," she greeted pleasantly.

Treecko nodded. "Nice to meet you."

Rem returned their greetings, and Treecko in turn introduced Amelia.

Lombre looked at Amelia, impressed. "Wow, you like singing? I can sing too!"

"No, she can't," Treecko corrected. "She can scream heavy metal songs, but she can't sing. At all."

Lombre stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to the Umbreon. "Well, Amelia, maybe you could teach Treecko to use his musical skills a bit," she joked. "He relies too much on his brain and logic, I think his taste in music and his vibes are getting rusty."

Amelia laughed as Treecko huffed. "They are not."

Lombre only chuckled, then turned to Rem. "Come on, we'd better be going." To Treecko and Amelia she said, "I guess we'll see you later! _¡Adios!_"

"See you later!" Amelia called as the two walked into the gigantic cake-shaped building opposite their cafe.

Then she turned back to the wood gecko. "Lombre is your teammate, isn't she? She seems like a really fun person."

"Yes, she is," Treecko replied. "I guess she _is_ pretty fun... whenever she isn't driving you insane, which is a rare occurrence indeed."

Amelia laughed. "Well then, I hope she doesn't drive Rem insane!"

She suddenly paused as if she'd just realized something. "Oh yeah, you were about to say something before they came. What was it?"

"Oh, that."

Treecko recalled what Lombre had just said.

_He relies too much on his brain and logic, I think his taste in music and his vibes are getting rusty._

Hah, she could say that because she didn't know everything about him. Yes, Treecko is a Pokémon of many secrets. He never let anyone know everything about him. Although Breloom had been his best friend since forever, there were some things even Breloom didn't know, and that was how he liked it.

However, he somehow felt as if Amelia was the right Pokémon to whom he should reveal this particular thing he'd kept quiet about, even to his own teammates.

And the brainy, super-logical analyzing and reasoning machine with the rusty music vibes as Lombre had put it made a startling revelation.

"...I sing too."

* * *

><p><em>Take that, Lombre Raindish! The quiet and cold-as-ice Treecko Kimori actually has a soft spot for singing, just like Amelia. Treecko's right, they do have more things in common than they previously thought.<em>

_Lopunny is excited just thinking about what Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia will turn out to be once they've discovered that they both sing._

_One thing's for sure: it's bound to be some kind of musical!_

* * *

><p>...<p>

"Is this wide and empty enough?"

Storm had to roll her eyes again. This was the fourth time Roselio had asked that already. Every time they came across a rather wide plain in the Arcane Area, the Thorn Pokémon had asked her if it was wide and empty enough to have their battle.

"No, Roselio," she had to tell him again. She pointed at the group of Lotad playing about near the pond of crystal-clear water. "There's a group of Lotad playing here. We wouldn't want them to accidentally get paralyzed or poisoned."

"Oh, yeah," he replied brightly. "Sorry, didn't see them."

So on they walked.

"How about here?" Roselio asked again once they'd come to an emptier plain.

Storm shook her head in a no-nonsense manner.

Roselio frowned and looked around. "Huh? What's wrong with this one? There aren't any Pokémon here."

"Look again," Storm said seriously, pointing at something on the ground behind him. Roselio turned and saw some Poké Balls on the ground. He frowned.

"What am I supposed to see again? I don't see anything but a bunch of Poké Balls."

"That's exactly where you're wrong," Storm corrected. "They're not Poké Balls. They're Foongus."

Roselio looked closer and saw that they were indeed Foongus camouflaged as Poké Balls, and they were looking indignantly up at him for having mistaken them as non-living things.

"Oops, sorry about that," he said sheepishly to the biggest Foongus before standing up again. "You're right, Storm. Huh, you have quite a keen eye."

Storm smiled. "Of course I do. When you've battled a lot, you'll see that noticing small details is really important."

They walked on.

Finally, Storm believed they'd found the perfect battle ground. It was quite wide, dotted with multicolored flowers and some shrubbery, and empty of Pokémon.

"Here's where we'll battle," she told Roselio. She added, "Watch out - I won't hesitate to hit you hard."

And that was how they found themselves standing opposite each other, about to start the battle. Storm was the one who started it by shouting, "Ready, set... BATTLE!"

The first move Storm used was Agility. She always does that first so she'd get a speed boost throughout the battle. It was a simple but highly effective strategy - due to her boosted speed, she was able to move again.

"Volt Tackle!" she shouted, running forward as her fur glowed a menacing yellow and electricity began to leap out of her cheeks.

Roselio seemed to have no intention to move, for he just stood there as Storm came closer and closer.

And suddenly, just as Storm was about to hit, he moved. Being the extremely lightweight Pokémon he is, he simply somersaulted above the Pikachu, landing perfectly behind her. At the same time, he whipped out one of his vines from inside his rose. It shot out and coiled itself around Storm's right arm.

Storm knew that the vine was poisonous. She had to get it off quickly or he might poison her. Suddenly, she got an idea on how she could use it to her advantage instead. It wasn't surprising, really - when you've been battling pretty much your whole life, you'd get strategies like this in a split second.

She grabbed his vine and began to pull it towards her, as if she was reeling in fish from a river. At the same time, she got another Volt Tackle ready.

As she pulled his vine, Roselio automatically got pulled to her also with a surprised gasp. At the same time, she was running towards him, her fur once more glowing with electricity.

"Volt Tackle!" she shouted.

This time, it was a real Volt Tackle, and it was a powerful Volt Tackle, too. There was a flash and an epic crackle of electricity and the next moment the Thorn Pokémon was landing painfully on the ground with a thud.

"Crap," he grunted as he sat up, a few petals floating out of his roses. "You hit hard, don't you."

"Told you so." Storm smiled.

It was so, but the battle wasn't over yet. Roselio started with a Petal Dance, trying harder now that Storm had dared ruin his prized roses. He spun and spun like a spinning top that he almost, _almost_ made Storm dizzy. Petals began to get scattered everywhere, surrounding Storm.

Storm was getting a Thunderbolt ready should she need to blast these petals away.

However, the petals never did anything.

They didn't seem to be doing anything but float down to the ground like ordinary petals. The only thing they were doing was obscure her...

_Wait._

That was exactly what Roselio wanted, Storm suddenly realized. The petals weren't for attacking; they only acted as a cover-up, so she wouldn't see what he was actually going to do.

But by the time the realization came, it was already too late, for Roselio suddenly emerged through his curtain of petals, both of his vine whips fully extracted.

Storm got hit head-on by a barrage of Poison Jabs. The hits were powerful for a small Pokémon, and she was sent reeling back and gasping, trying to catch her breath.

As the last of the red and blue petals floated to the ground, she saw the Thorn Pokémon jump back and land perfectly. He spun with his roses in the air, shaking them like a pair of red and blue maracas.

Storm stayed put for a moment warily, getting ready to dodge his next attack...

...Which, surprisingly, never came.

Feeling rather exasperated at herself for having been tricked by something like that, she decided to charge with another attack. She fired up another Volt Tackle as she ran towards him with a battle whoop. As she did so, she felt something prick her foot, but took no notice of that. Perhaps it was only a fallen twig.

Her Volt Tackle hit hard, slamming him to the ground again. This time, Storm took no chances. Thanks to her increased speed, she was able to attack him with tackle before he could even prepare his next attack. For the second - or was it third? - time, Roselio landed hard on the ground again, bruising himself and ruining his roses even more.

Storm breathlessly jumped back with satisfaction, watching as the Grass-type slowly (and painfully, it seemed) picked himself up.

She wouldn't admit it, of course, but for some reason she herself felt tired already, which was strange. She could usually endure even very long battles. Her breathing came in short rags.

Roselio finally managed to get back on his feet although he did seem rather dazed, and for some reason he was smiling at Storm.

"Perhaps you would like to check your foot and arm," he suggested.

Storm froze and looked down.

_...He spun with his roses in the air, shaking them like a pair of red and blue maracas._

_...As she did so, she felt something prick her foot..._

Upon closer inspection, she saw a tiny purple barb stuck to her skin.

Storm's eyes widened.

_Toxic Spikes_.

So that was why she'd felt unusually tired. She'd already been poisoned; her health had already been steadily decreasing.

Now she checked her arm.

_...he whipped out one of his vines from inside his rose. It shot out and coiled itself around Storm's right arm..._

At first she didn't see anything, but after she'd looked a bit closer, she saw that her arm was dotted with green tendrils.

_Leech Seed._

She looked up and stared at Roselio. The Thorn Pokémon somehow looked much fresher... Which was surprising, considering the many times Storm had slammed him to the ground.

It was, Storm suddenly realized, because of Leech Seed. That was why he could recover so quickly, and also why Storm got tired as quickly, too. He'd been sapping her energy.

Now he laughed off his bruises lightly, but was at the same time wincing. "Wow, Storm. Your hits are really powerful. I feel totally beat up. I'm not surprised your hobby is battling."

Another thing Storm learned about Roselio today. He may not seem strong at all, but he was definitely the come-back-from-behind type of fighter. She guessed people underestimate him a lot, but was certain they eventually paid the price.

That, and the fact that he was always so happy-go-lucky. He obviously saw laughter as the best medicine.

Storm looked at him, but the way she did was somehow different.

"You're not too bad yourself," she said.

* * *

><p><em>Would it look strange if Lopunny came with pom-poms? Of course she isn't particularly rooting for anyone in that battle, but she thinks it'll be more fun to watch while waving pom-poms around.<em>

_Anyway, Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm is progressing rather differently (or should Lopunny say violently?)... But rather nicely, too. Lopunny has a feeling that the battle will teach both Roselio and Storm new things. For Roselio, that girls can and do pack quite a punch, especially no-nonsense ones like Storm (and that he should also try being more serious for once). For Storm, that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Just because someone wears a cute red bowtie, speaks fluent French, and is prissy about his roses doesn't mean he's a weakling, right?_

_Well, the battle isn't over yet and none of them is obviously going to back down this easily, so Roselio can certainly expect more bruises coming his way. ^_^"_

_Again, stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Note: Ah! Here we go! I am so sorry to have delayed updating this for what seemed like forever thanks to issues with the site and my own laziness, but now I'm back on track. *scatters red and blue petals everywhere*_

_From now on, I'm not sure I can post about all the pairings in one go. I'm going to upload one chapter at a time, and if your favorite pairing or the pairing you're paying most attention to isn't there, it will be coming soon._

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

...

For the next fifteen minutes or so, Staraptor (and Tori herself) ran - or rather, flew - themselves ragged trying to recover all of the scattered pages. While Staraptor flew and grabbed pages with his talons, Tori reached out to grab them with her hands. Sometimes she even used Psychic to simply float a near page to her.

Finally, Staraptor could see no more pages floating in the air.

"Good. Did we get all of them?"

"Wait a second," Tori replied, rearranging the pages and checking them. She groaned. "Oh, no! We still have one more last page to find. And it happens to be my favorite chapter!"

Staraptor quickly scanned his surroundings but could see no more pages.

"Hang on. I'm going to try getting close to the ground - maybe it's fallen," Staraptor told her, then began to drop towards the ground.

That was where they saw Darwin, and she was holding a sheet of paper with Physics formulas on it.

"Good news, your last page's been found," he told Tori, then landed on the ground near the puzzled Roserade. Tori quickly leapt off Staraptor's back and practically plucked the page out of Darwin's roses.

"Thank goodness!" she gasped in relief.

Darwin blinked then glared at them; she was still in a bad mood. "What was that about?"

"Sorry about that," Tori apologized. "Staraptor and I went fast-flying and did some aerial acrobatics, and the pages of my book got scattered. Luckily, we managed to catch all of them. Also, thank you for catching the last page! Heat happens to be my favorite subject in Physics."

Darwin stared at her with a calculating look as if she couldn't trust anyone who actually liked Physics. However, she did answer slowly, "You're welcome...?" in an unsure voice.

Staraptor had been looking around. Now he turned back to Darwin. "Hey, where's Tepig?" he asked. "Isn't he supposed to be with you?"

"Oh, Tepig." Darwin waved a dismissive hand. "No, he's waiting in front of Chandelure's tent."

Staraptor frowned at her. "And what are you doing here?"

Darwin stuck her nose in the air. "Looking for Hypno. Have you seen him?"

"Hypno? Actually, I did see him when we were up in the air," Tori spoke up after having tied her manuscript again, this time more securely. "If I wasn't mistaken, he was in the Power Zone with a Snivy, a Breloom, and a Braixen."

Darwin scowled upon hearing the grass snake's name. "In that case, I'd better be going," she said determinedly. "Thanks for the hint."

"You're welcome!" Tori replied with a smile.

Staraptor frowned as he watched the Roserade walk away. "Why do I get the feeling that something's gone dreadfully wrong," he mumbled under his breath.

* * *

><p><em>Staraptor is right – something is dreadfully wrong.<em>

_With Darwin and Tepig, anyway, not Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori! Lopunny is glad to see that this pairing is back on track after finding Tori's last page. I wonder what kind of high-flying adventure will they take off to next?_

* * *

><p>All right! Leaving Wish Park, let's zoom in on the activities of another pairing. This time, the place is PokéPark's Beach Cove.<p>

In the Beach Cove, three Pokémon divided into two teams were standing opposite each other, about to play beach soccer.

On the left side were Timburr and two of his Tech Area friends, Golett and Roggenrola.

On the right stood Oshawott, Lizzy, and Drilbur (who just joined the team a few minutes ago to be the goalkeeper, courtesy of Oshawott's very subtle pushing).

As she stood there uncertainly, Lizzy looked around at her team members. Oshawott, the captain, had his eyes fixed on Timburr, seemingly not intimidated by the squared log Timburr was carrying. Lizzy herself was supposed to help Oshawott on the offense, and Drilbur was their goalkeeper... Only he seemed more interested in something underground in front of their goal, for now a hole in the ground was the only thing left of him.

Lizzy turned to Oshawott, pessimistic. "I think we're going to lose," she blurted out and regretted it the next second. Whenever she wasn't awkward, she was impulsive when it comes to speech.

Oshawott only laughed. "Are you kidding me? Our team is perfect! We're totally gonna win!"

Lizzy was exasperated but there was no time to do anything else. Drifblim, who was to act as referee, started the match. Timburr was the first one to get the ball and he began to dribble it towards Oshawott's goal.

"Lizzy, tackle him!" Oshawott exclaimed. He was quite far away from Timburr, but Lizzy was just a stone's throw away.

Lizzy didn't know that "tackle" meant something else in soccer, so she did what Oshawott asked her to do - Pokémon battle style.

"Oomph!" Timburr exclaimed after having been shoved by Lizzy. Drifblim exclaimed, "Foul!"

"What?" Lizzy cried out in alarm, quickly straightening up. "I d-d-didn't do anything...!"

She thought Oshawott would be disappointed because she was clearly really bad at this. However, Oshawott was laughing instead. "No, not that kind of tackle!"

After that, Drifblim allowed Timburr's team to shoot a penalty kick, which flew straight into the net thanks to Oshawott's and Lizzy's absent goalkeeper, but Lizzy hardly seemed to mind. Even with one score down, Oshawott hadn't been annoyed or exasperated because she mistook his instruction as the _other_ kind of tackle.

* * *

><p><em>Never mind, dear Lizzy! We make mistakes like that all the time!<em>

_Lopunny is glad to see that Oshawott and Lizzy are getting along well. Oshawott doesn't seem to rattled that Lizzy isn't really good at soccer, which certainly saves Lizzy a lot of trouble. It's definitely a good thing because she has enough things to deal with already – such as the fact that she'd gotten dragged into a game she hadn't wanted to participate in, in the first place._

_Once again, Lopunny shakes her head pitifully. Good luck, dear Lizzy! You're going to need it!_

* * *

><p>After meeting Treecko and Amelia in the cafe in front of Cofagrigus' cake-shaped building, Rem and Lombre went into the cake-shaped building itself, where they saw Cofagrigus seated on his sugar-coated throne wearing a face expression that looked as if he'd been expecting them.<p>

"Welcome, Meteor Mash-up participants," he said with a smile. "Welcome to Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption. Since today is the day of the Meteor Mash-up, we are going to have a special version of the Cake Contraption. You will be playing this attraction in pairs." His smile went wider.

Lopunny had told all of the attraction masters to hold special versions of the attractions. He had heard from Haxorus that one pairing was at his dojo and about to play Power Bash. The pair over at Haxorus' dojo had been really eager to play the Valentine's Day version of Power Bash.

However, Cofagrigus would soon discover, it didn't work that way with the pair standing in front of him.

They were both frowning.

"What, you mean we have to play the attraction _together?!_" the Whimsicott burst out.

"¡Caramba! You mean we have to work _together?!_" the Lombre gagged.

"Well, yes!" Cofagrigus stared at them. "Isn't that what you meteor mashers want? It'd be really romantic."

However, if anything, the two Pokémon stared at each other and quickly tossed their heads.

"No way!" they exclaimed at the same time.

Rem frowned at Cofagrigus. "Seriously, can't we just play the usual Cake Contraption?"

Cofagrigus frowned back. "Well, that wouldn't be that easy, young man. I already have participants waiting and they're expecting to play the Valentine's Day version of the Cake Contraption."

But all Rem said was, "Well then, tell them that we're going to play the usual Cake Contraption after all, because I really don't want to play with _Señorita_ Screamo here."

"Good, because I don't want to play with you, too," Lombre shot back. "You'd totally mess things up."

Cofagrigus looked back and forth between them and finally had to sigh deeply. Lopunny wouldn't be happy if he told her that he'd turned down the only pairing that came to him.

"Fine," he said. "We'll play the usual Cake Contraption."

He got off his throne and went over to a door leading to an inner room. He opened it a crack and called, "I apologize, folks, there has been a change of plans. We are playing the usual Cake Contraption after all."

Rem and Lombre heard a chorus of "Awww"s and grumbles and footsteps of the disappointed Pokémon deciding not to play but couldn't have cared less. They weren't going to have to work together and that was all that mattered.

...  
>Rem and Lombre didn't seem to notice the accusative looks the remaining Pokémon in the room were giving them, either. All they had eyes and ears for was the upcoming Cake Contraption and none of them was backing down.<p>

Cofagrigus climbed back onto his throne. This time he was wearing an annoyed expression on his face.

"All right then, we can finally get started," he said with an exaggerated sigh. "We are going to play the Cake Contraption exactly how we've always been playing and enjoying it. (I hope you can still enjoy the attraction even after that unneeded farce earlier.) The winner will get all this."

He waved a hand at a pile of sweet treats on a table beside his throne. There were cakes and cookies of a lot of different colors and varieties, but most exciting of all was the sheer quantity of the prize. You could probably eat a different cake every day for a week and still not run out of treats. Unconsciously, the Pokémon in the room began to smile. Everyone wanted to win the treats. (OK, maybe everyone except our Rem and Lombre. They just wanted the pride.)

By now, all the Pokémon were holding the typical Cake Contraption berry shooters and Cofagrigus was saying, "OK! On the count of one, two, three! Begin!"

Suddenly Watchog were appearing while holding acorns and Yamask were flitting around holding cake mix. They were supposed to shoot at the acorns and cake mix Cofagrigus' helpers were holding to make the most cakes.

Quite a lot of Pokémon participated in the competition, of course, but a certain Whimsicott and a certain Lombre felt as though they were the only ones competing.

_I'll show that rude Whimsicott,_ thought Lombre.

_I'll show that _Señorita_ Screamo_, thought Rem.

... What a competition, huh?

* * *

><p><em>Although Rem and Lombre have just met, Lopunny is delighted to see that Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre is already kicking off for some action! OK, so they may think the other is annoying now, but who knows, maybe they'll warm up to each other later?<em>

_Lopunny is keeping tabs on this. With both of them intent to win the Cake Contraption, she wonders how this will turn out!_

_Aren't you curious as well? Lopunny asks mischievously. If so, stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!_


	9. Chapter 9

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

"Wow! This place is packed."

Braixen looked around the inside interior of Haxorus' dojo with wide eyes. The dojo was decorated in a traditional Japanese style with red and yellow carved ceilings and pillars. She thought it looked rather beautiful.

When her eyes finally wandered away from the ceiling and decor, she finally paid attention to the other Pokémon in the dojo... and swallowed nervously.

It was not an understatement to say that she and Breloom were the most out-of-place-looking Pokémon in the dojo. The others were all buffy and tough-looking. There were Machamp and Machoke and Hariyama and Hitmonlee and Hitmontop and Hitmonchan and Mienshao and Medicham. The least tough-looking of all the other Pokémon were probably a Meditite and a Mienfoo, and even so they somehow managed to still look powerful despite their small size.

And to make matters worse, Braixen was the only girl in the dojo.

Braixen tugged at Breloom's arm and hissed, "Are you sure about this?"

"'Course I'm sure," the Mushroom Pokémon replied, still bouncing ahead as if they owned the place. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Are you kidding me?" Braixen burst out. "Look at the other Pokémon. They mean business. They're totally gonna beat us, Breloom. And I don't want to be humiliated in front of all these guys!"

"Hah!" Breloom finally stopped just for the sake of snorting at her. "They ain't gonna beat us. Have some faith in your skills."

Braixen groaned. "Come on, let's be realistic here. Can you even punch with those short arms of yours?"

Her companion's face went red. "'Course I can," he said haughtily. "You're just like Lombre, ain't ya; always doubting my fighting skills and you'll see that you'll regret it sooner or later. Watch this."

And before Braixen could stop him, he had shot out one of his short arms in an impromptu punch, which stretched as soon as he did so. Braixen was at first quite surprised at the length it could grow into when he punched, but then her wonder turned into horror when she saw a huge Hariyama standing right at the spot Breloom was punching.

"Stop!" she cried out, but it was too late.

Breloom inadvertently punched the Hariyama's back. It wasn't that hard, actually, since Breloom wasn't really meaning to punch anyone. Nevertheless, the Hariyama turned around, his face a mask of rage, angry not because it had hurt, but rather because someone had _dared_ punch him. The next moment, he was stomping over to Breloom and Braixen.

"We're toast," said Braixen.

* * *

><p><em>You can say that again! In just the space of a few seconds, Lopunny suddenly has another pairing to keep an eye on besides Roselio x Storm. Looks like Breloom and Braixen have just gotten themselves into a rather uncomfortable fix. How are they going to get out of this one, Lopunny wonders? Hariyama certainly looks like he means business.<em>

_Nah, that's an understatement. Hariyama _is _business._

* * *

><p>Quite a while had passed after Gremlin and Froslass stopped speaking, but even now, the silence persisted since none had said anything else. They were both trying - and failing - to think of what to say next.<p>

By this time, Froslass had managed to push away thoughts of the lab, and was trying to think of another joke. She knew that she actually had quite a lot of science jokes, but for some unknown reason she found it unable to remember any of them.

Of course Froslass can't see her own face, so she didn't notice that the palest tinge of pink was still occupying her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Gremlin wasn't having any better luck. The only thing that ran about in his mind was that he needed to think of something fast before Froslass decided to crack another joke and himself having to fake another laugh. Maybe they could go somewhere and do something instead of just standing there? Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of was to go into Chandelure's tent and play Dance Inferno.

That was when Froslass finally broke the silence.

"The only thing I can think of is to go into Chandelure's tent and play Dance Inferno," the Ice-type said.

Gremlin looked up with a start. "H-hey! That was also what I was thinking!"

Froslass nodded. "Very well. Let us go on our way, then." She turned and began to make her way to Chandelure's tent with Gremlin quickly falling into step.

"Uh... Froslass?"

"Yes?"

"I couldn't have imagined that you liked to dance."

Froslass paused. "Why not?"

"Uhh, because, well, you're a really intellectual Pokémon. Lopunny even said you were a scientist, so I thought you didn't like to move much or anything like that."

"Oh, that." Froslass chuckled silently. "Please, just because I am a Pokémon of intellect does not mean I do not have fun or anything of the sort. I do like to dance and watch soccer matches."

"You watch soccer matches?" Gremlin asked. He found that rather surprising.

"Well, yes. Do you not?"

"Mm... Sometimes."

Froslass nodded. "And the other thing; you said you thought I did not like to move much. Well, it is hard to not like to move much when you have teammates like Roselio and Staraptor."

"Huh? Why?"

"Well, Staraptor is that kind of person who is rebelliously unstoppable whenever he gets excited," she said, "and that is, unfortunately, most of the time. As for our team leader Roselio, I am not even sure he has his brains in the right place. I would have loved to dissect his head for the sole purpose of seeing whether his brain is still firmly attached to his spinal cord." She was shaking her head as she said that.

Gremlin found himself laughing. Although Froslass had said it seriously with no intention whatsoever to joke, what she said was actually pretty funny.

"Oh, so you're the only sane head in the team," Gremlin laughed. "I understand."

"That's right." Froslass smiled. "You have to go out of your way to keep them from doing anything... err... Irrational. It reminds me of the first few weeks since we became a rescue team."

"Really?" Gremlin turned to her curiously. "What happened then?"

"Since we were only rookies, I suggested them to take up a rescue job that was not too challenging," Froslass explained. "But oh no, of course Staraptor and Roselio saw the need to accept an S-ranked job to catch an outlaw Metagross for some insignificantly foolish reason."

"Yikes!" The Sableye's eyes were wide. "An S-ranked outlaw Metagross?! That sounds scary!"

"I know, right." Froslass rolled her eyes. "As you can imagine, it did not go well. At all."

"Ooh. That must have sucked," Gremlin said. "So, your teammates are that much of a pain, aren't they?"

"Yes." However, Froslass was smiling a small smile. "Yes, they are obnoxious and immature and irrational, but I do love being around them a lot. They make things fun."

"Ah, I understand." Gremlin nodded. "Sure, it's much better when your teammates make you laugh. Laughter is important, you know."

Froslass nodded. Seriously.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny giggles as she watches their conversation unfold. Looks like it's not going to be that easy for Gremlin to get Froslass into a lighter mood, yeah? Well, at least they're trying, and they've finally agreed on something to do. (Anything's better than that silence, really.)<em>

_Lopunny grins to herself. She'd better get ready to meet the first Meteor Mash-up pairing who's about to play her own Dance Inferno! This will certainly be FUN._

* * *

><p>All right, now let's get our focus on the Arcane Area for some lightning-strike-and-petal-blizzard frenzy! We'd left off when both our battlers discovered that the other was better than they thought. I wonder how things will turn out?<p>

...

For a moment, no one moved.

Pikachu and Roselia stood opposite each other. Both of them were breathless.

Roselio looked bruised and battered, his red bowtie disheveled and red and blue petals were falling out of his roses. He was wondering how he could take the Pikachu down. Even with his Leech Seed and Toxic Spikes, Storm was tough. She would surely step up her guard knowing that he now had an advantage over her. Besides, Storm was an avid battler. When she was in a fix, she didn't give up – she'd only attack even fiercer than before.

Storm, although she looked less beat-up, knew that her health was steadily diminishing thanks to Roselio's annoyingly invisible seeds and spikes. She was wondering how she could take the Roselia down. He got Leech Seed health boosts every now and then, and he was elusive. He could dodge attacks with a series of intricate jumps and seemed to have many tricks up his roses.

_I'll just charge with a 120 power Petal Dance,_ Roselio finally decided. _I'll charge again and again and again and hope I defeat her before I get dizzy._

_I'll just charge with one of my trusty Volt Tackles,_ Storm finally decided. _No, not just _one _– I'll charge again and again and again and hope I defeat him despite the bad type matchup._

And with those similar strategies in mind, both started to run straight at the other with a battle whoop. Even when they saw that the other obviously had the same plan in mind, no one budged an inch – they only hoped that their own attack was stronger than the other's.

They came nearer and nearer and nearer so that Roselio could hear the static electricity crackling on Storm's fur and Storm could count how many blue petals and how many red ones...

And then a whole group of Lotad stacked on top of one another simply shot straight into their path.

Both Roselio and Storm gasped and screeched to a sudden stop, making them lose their balance and fall flat on the ground. Storm quickly lost her yellow glow as the electricity disappeared. Roselio's whirling petal blizzard died down.

The Lotad, meanwhile, jumped in surprise and shot off again, breaking their stacked-up formation so they could disappear among the wildflowers.

For a moment, no one spoke, not believing how close they'd come to attacking a random Pokémon.

Then Roselio blew a red petal off his forehead and stood up, trying to tidy his bowtie. "That was too close. I thought you said there weren't any Pokémon here!"

"There weren't," Storm insisted indignantly, standing up also and brushing blades of grass off her fur. "Those Lotad weren't here when we arrived. I think they came from somewhere else."

"Well, they certainly were in a frenzy."

Storm observed how the Lotad were now hiding among the wildflowers. They seemed desperate not to be seen. She frowned.

"I think they _are_ in a frenzy..." She turned to Roselio. "Something's up."

Roselio laughed lightly. "Nothing's up! They're probably just playing catch and hide-and-seek or something."

Storm rolled her eyes. He really was hopeless. "Ohh right, hide-and-seek," she drawled. "_Not._ I'm telling you, something's wrong. They're afraid of something. My battle instincts are tingling—"

Storm was to be proven right, for no sooner had she said that, there came a shout from the direction the group of Lotad had come from.

"You! The electric mouse and the rosy one!"

Storm and Roselio whirled and saw a group of Pokémon hurry over. In the lead was a Krokorok, and he was flanked by a Magmar, Glalie, and Bellsprout. All were wearing menacing expressions on their faces. Even the Bellsprout.

Storm took an instant dislike to these Pokémon, but of course Roselio didn't. He still saw the need to greet them. In French.

"_Bonjour!_" he said with a smile. "May we help you?"

Storm felt like strangling him to keep him quiet, but she had a feeling Lopunny wouldn't like that. _He really is hopeless,_ she thought.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny isn't a Psychic-type, but even she can already foresee where this will go. <em>

_Fact: Those who greet thugs get beaten up. Fact: Those who do it in a foreign language get even more beaten up cuz they'd think you were trying to show them that you're smarter than them. And in one graceful sweep, Roselio has succeeded in doing both. Now it would be interesting to see Roselio and Storm try to get out of the little mess they'd soon be in._

_This will be fun._

* * *

><p>If you're looking for more action, you're in luck. The next pairing up is Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy, and last time we checked, they were about to get attacked by a horde of agitated Swoobat.<p>

As the Swoobat got nearer and nearer, Cleffy screamed. She had to admit that screaming in fear wasn't the thing for normal rescue team Pokémon to do, but she just couldn't help it since the Swoobat had gotten angered really fast.

(And also because fortunately Treecko was nowhere to be seen. If he had been around, he would have definitely chastised her for "losing her cool".)

If anything, her scream only agitated the Swoobat even more. They screeched in high-pitched noises and let out erratic Psybeams.

Before she could even finish screaming, Nile had reappeared by her side and used Detect. Just like that, he blocked the incoming Psybeams. At the same time, Cleffy finally finished screaming, a red hue quickly overtaking her cheeks. At that moment it dawned on her that what she'd just done was certainly pathetic, and she felt even worse of herself than usual.

Blocked by Nile's Detect, the Swoobat's Psybeams bounced off into the air and on the high ceiling of the cave, creating eerie echoes.

Which agitated the Swoobat even _more!_

Flapping their leathery wings, they came at Cleffy again, firing up more Psybeams.

Nile blocked some more with Detect, but it was getting harder and harder to do that since Detect's accuracy drops if it was used in succession. Finally he decided to simply grab Cleffy's hand and cart her away.

"Come on! Run!" he exclaimed.

Cleffy was stupefied for a split second.

_Run._

A word she'd heard so many times in the past.

That was when Cleffy Clefairy had had enough. She'd had enough of being the damsel in distress. She'd had enough of screaming and then running while her teammates covered for her. Breloom would punch enemies away with his DynamicPunch. Treecko would Leaf Blade all of them. Lombre would use Surf or SolarBeam. But she, Cleffy, would either run or hide.

Yep, she'd had enough.

"_Mega PUNCH!_" she suddenly shouted, firing up Mega Punch. Nile was surprised the Clefairy could use such a powerful move.

However, instead of punching the horde of angry Swoobat, she rammed her fist into the ground.

Nile was about to question her about _that_ when suddenly the earth cracked and broke due to her overwhelmingly strong punch. It was so powerful that the crust broke and got unbalanced so that chunks of earth suddenly protruded out of the ground, getting nearer and nearer towards the group of Swoobat.

A final chunk of earth suddenly appeared right underneath the Swoobat, knocking them into the sky with squealing noises getting quieter and quieter in the distance. If they were Team Rocket, they would have shouted, "We're blasting off again!"

And after a while, it was all silent.

Nile broke it not too long after.

"Wow."

He turned to the Clefairy. "Wow, Cleffy. That was awesome! It was really smart of you to think of that!"

Cleffy blushed, quickly changing back into the shy old Cleffy Clefairy. "O-oh, it's n-nothing," she said quietly. "And I wasn't the one who thought of that – my teammate Treecko was the one who did. H-he's quite smart, isn't he? He thought that because I was t-too scared to actually get up close to the enemies and p-punch them, I should just punch the g-ground s-so it w-will do the send-them-flying job for me."

"Wow. Still, that's a really smart strategy."

They both froze when they heard squealing in the distance.

"Come on!" Nile went back down to business. "Let's get out of here before they come back with reinforcements."

Cleffy nodded, and they set off for the stairs leading down from the plateau they were standing on. However, in her haste, Cleffy almost missed the top step, and before she knew it, the next moment she was falling. Luckily, Nile caught her hand just in time...

...but the damage had been done.

Cleffy had seen that the plateau they were on was really high above ground, and just that small glimpse had sent her head spinning. She staggered backward, her head still spinning due to that sudden attack of vertigo. She fell onto her backside, clutching her head and blinking her eyes, now beginning to get dotted with dark spots, sorely regretting the fact that she'd always been afraid of heights.

The last thing she heard was Nile's voice asking with concern, "Hey Cleffy! Are you all right? What happened?!"

Cleffy Clefairy fainted.

* * *

><p><em>Surviving the battle against the Swoobat horde only to faint because of a fear of heights. Lopunny has to admit that it's not the most heroic story ever, but she's more worried of what might happen <em>after _that. Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy has been going marvelously well up to this point, but things are going downhill fast!_

_What can Nile do to keep the fainted Cleffy safe _and _keep away the horde of Swoobat?_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM!_

_...This will be fun, indeed._


	10. Chapter 10

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

Finally, the Cake Contraption time was up. Cofagrigus told everyone to put down their berry shooters. Then, he got off his throne and began to count each Pokémon's cake with a team of expert Yamask counters. (While a team of expert Watchog watchers kept a close eye on the participants in case someone tried something unfair.)

After they had finished, Cofagrigus sat back down on his throne, looking impressed.

"Well, what do you know, the number of cakes you Pokémon have made is far above anything I have ever seen during my time as an attraction master," Cofagrigus said. "But what's more surprising is the fact that we have a tie!"

"A tie?" the Pokémon chorused.

"That's right! These two are tied in first place!" He took Rem's left hand and Lombre's right hand. "You two made an impressive amount of cake today, young ones! But a tie is a tie, and that means we should have a tiebreaker!"

The other Pokémon were staring daggers at Rem and Lombre. They seemed to be annoyed at the fact that they were the ones who ruined the special Cake Contraption, but one of them was going to get the treats instead. None seemed too interested to watch the tiebreaker, and some were already glumly walking out of the building.

By the time Cofagrigus was thinking of what they were going to do to break the tie, the building was empty of participants except for Rem and Lombre themselves.

Lombre wriggled her hand out of Cofagrigus' grip and folded her arms in front of her. "¡Ay! Just a minute there," she said with a frown. "Are you sure I'm tied with him? Isn't that too big a coincidence? Maybe your Yamask miscounted, in which case you should recount all my cakes. Here, I'll help you. _Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete..._"

Rem harrumphed. "Let the experts do it," he said sarcastically. "If you're going to count aloud all your cakes, we'd never get out of here." He turned to Cofagrigus. "Instead of a tiebreaker, don't you have anything else in consideration to determine the real winner? I mean, it was pretty clear that I handled the berry shooter with more expertise and flair..."

Lombre glared at him. "Expertise and flair indeed! What does 'flair' even mean, anyway?"

Rem grinned. "Only cake-making experts will understand," he said smugly.

Lombre put her hands on her hips. "Wait just a second, _mi amigo._ Are you saying you're a cake-making expert whereas I'm not?"

Rem turned away as if he was bored with this conversation. "Come on, how many times have I told you that already?"

"Oh, so what you're calling flair is the fact that you shot that poor Watchog in the face? If that's what you meant by 'flair', then you're right, I don't think I'll ever have as much of it as you."

"Not so fast; who shot that Yamask in the face, huh? Twice, even. I don't think that was me."

"Grrrr...!" Now they were practically neck and neck. Each one was trying to stare the other down.

Cofagrigus' patience snapped.

"Enough!" he shouted, clapping all four hands on his head. "I think I've heard enough of this petty bickering! Tell you what, young ones? You _both_ win! You both get to keep the prize! Just stop it with the arguing, you're driving me insane!"

He hurried over to the door and put a hand on the handle. However, before going out, he paused and turned back.

"And that's the conclusion of today's special Cake Contraption," he said quickly. "Thank you for playing and we hope you do _not_ come again."

And with that, he went out and slammed the door behind him. All the Watchog and Yamask followed suit, leaving Rem and Lombre alone with their treats.

* * *

><p>"<em>We hope you do not come again!" That's a nice one, Cofagrigus! Lopunny knows her Attraction Master buddy is frustrated, and she smiles pitifully for him watching the scene unfold.<em>

_Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre is still at that: war. Both think they're better than the other, but Lopunny is dying to know what they will do next since the treats belong to both of them now. Will they cease fire, or will they not?_

* * *

><p>We had broken off when Treecko told Amelia that he could also sing. Now the Umbreon's eyes were wide.<p>

"Oh, so you also sing? Wow, we do have a lot in common, then!"

She shook her head. "Well, I would never have guessed. I thought your friend was right since you come off to be that sort of person who is better at exact stuff."

Treecko sipped his tea coolly. "That's what they all say," he said. "They are wrong."

Amelia didn't say anything else, but instead began to sing a rather popular song. Treecko joined in not long after.

"Hmm." Amelia stopped, smiling. "How about this?"

She began to sing a different song, this time less known. Her voice was sweet and silvery. It was obvious that she'd had a lot of practice, and it wasn't surprising because singing was one of Amelia's favorite things to do.

Treecko was silent for a minute, listening to her singing.

The Cake Zone of Wish Park was not as hectic and loud as the Dance Zone, of course, but it was still filled with many random noises. There were the sounds of the cotton candy machines (they sell sweets in the Cake Zone; popcorn belongs to the Dance Zone), friends talking to one another, cries of baby Pokémon and those of their mothers trying to calm them down.

However, Amelia's voice was loud enough to be heard above the noise, luckily for Treecko. If it wasn't, he wouldn't have known what song she was singing.

Finally knowing what it was, Treecko joined in again. He was singing more quietly than Amelia, perhaps because he wasn't used to people hearing his singing, but Amelia heard him nevertheless.

She grinned. "OK, so you _are_ good and _do_ know a lot of songs. But I bet you don't know this one!"

With that, she began to sing again. This time, the tune seemed lilting and strange, as if it wasn't even a proper song to begin with. It seemed more like a lullaby.

"_Blue moon floating, blue seas sparkling. You emerge from a little egg, by the ocean.__.._"

Treecko listened.

And he listened.

And he listened some more.

However, Amelia was right. He didn't know this song! He was positive he had never heard of it before.

...or had he?

Suddenly, his thoughts went back to the first time he'd met Amelia in front of Chandelure's tent in the Dance Zone. The time before he told her that he liked to sing too. His mind went back to the walk from the Dance Zone to the Cake Zone.

_"Oh, no, not that," Amelia quickly said. "I was singing a little song I made."_

_"Oh?" Treecko stared at her. "You like to make songs? That is none short on impressive."_

_Amelia blushed good-naturedly. "Yeah, I like to write songs. I sing, too, of course."_

_...__They started walking towards the Cake Zone part of Wish Park. Both Pokémon were quiet, so the walk was filled with silence._

_However, Treecko realized that if you listened hard enough, you could hear that Amelia was singing softly._

_The calm, cool, and clever wood gecko thought he detected a foreign feeling._

_He felt like... singing along._

_To Manaphy's little lullaby._

Suddenly, Treecko's eyes went wide. Of course he'd heard that song before! It was one of those she'd made herself and sung when they were walking to the Cake Zone from the Dance Zone. The song had a lilting tune, and he remembered that it was about Manaphy.

Amelia was still singing. "_Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I.__ Krabby singing..."_

Treecko took a deep breath and began to sing too.

"_Wingull winging. __Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I.__.." _Unlike the Umbreon, he kept his voice quiet. He wasn't too confident at all about his singing. After all, it was not as if many people had heard it before.

He finished quietly, "_This is Manaphy's little lullaby.__"_

* * *

><p><em>Oooooohh! That wood gecko may not believe it himself, but he actually has a pretty nice voice. No, Lopunny quickly corrects herself. It's not wrong to say that he's really good at singing. Well. Who could have guessed? Then again, even Treecko's teammate Lombre was wrong about him. He really is a secretive <em>_Pokémon! _

_I wonder what Amelia thinks about his singing~?_

* * *

><p>All right, now we move over to the Beach Cove! When we last saw them, Oshawott and Lizzy were down one point because of a penalty kick from Timburr's team. Let's see how they're doing now!<p>

...

The game had worn on, and by the time the sun was high in the sky, the scores were even. Oshawott had scored by shooting a powerful and well-aimed kick at the top right corner of the Tech Area goal. He seemed to know which part of it was the opposing team's weakness. Although he had been quite boastful of his beach soccer skills, Lizzy had to admit that Oshawott was good.

Now Timburr was running down the beach with the ball on his heels. Oshawott stood in front of him, getting ready to steal the ball when he passes by.

Timburr passed by.

Oshawott kicked and hit his target.

Which unfortunately _wasn't_ the ball.

Instead of kicking the ball, he inadvertently kicked at a wooden bench standing at one side of their playing field and stubbed his toe.

And the next moment he was hopping about, clutching his foot and yelping.

It would have been funny to watch if it were a cartoon, but since this wasn't a cartoon and also because Lopunny wouldn't be too happy if she and Oshawott returned to the Dance Zone with the latter in a limp, Lizzy rushed over to him. Soon Timburr and his teammates did, too, and the match was practically abandoned.

Oshawott was, of course, trying to pretend that it was nothing to go nuts over. He put on a wavering smile on his face and tried to shoo the others off.

"It's nothing," he said, trying to hide his foot from the others, but Lizzy knew better. In the short-lasting moment during which she'd caught a glimpse of Oshawott's foot, she saw that it was bleeding. Another part of it was bruised blue. He must have stubbed it rather hard.

"Your foot is bleeding!" she burst out.

Oshawott waved her off. "It's nothing!"

"You should bandage it," Lizzy said.

"No way," Oshawott said with a frown.

"I-it's for the hygiene," Lizzy said, not about to take no for an answer.

Oshawott rolled his eyes. "Well, OK, if that will get you to just stop pushing me to do all sorts of wimpy things, but where are you going to get a bandage, anyway?"

A weird smile suddenly took over Lizzy's face. "Watch and learn," she said, and then she suddenly put her hands into her fleece.

Oshawott was, of course, totally weirded out when Lizzy pulled out several Oran Berries, a few shiny marbles, an Unfezant feather, some stems of flowers, an interesting-looking leaf, and a pretty patterned ribbon out of her fleece.

"What...?" he started to say when Lizzy shushed him.

"Wait. I know I've got it in here somewhere... Hmm..."

And yet she still pulled out a worn-looking paper scrawled all over with Unown letters, some stubby crayons, some acorns, a handful of colorful beads, some pale pink shells, and a shiny Amulet Coin. ("Oops, I forgot to return this to Meowth. Ha, ha. How f-forgetful of me." She blushed.)

"OK, how did you—" Oshawott started to say with even more apparent astonishment when Lizzy finally pulled out a white bandage triumphantly out of her fleece.

"Yay! Got it!"

Then she began to deftly clean the sea otter's wound and bandage it. After that she stood and stepped back. "U-um, voila."

Oshawott tried moving his foot about. It hurt way less than before.

"Hey, this is actually pretty neat!" he said with satisfaction. "Nice one, Lizzy!"

The Flaaffy blushed. "Uh, you're welcome, I guess."

"That was some kinda cool," Timburr said. "How many stuff have you got in your fleece, anyway?"

Lizzy blushed even more because now everyone was staring expectantly at her. "Uhh, I don't know," she said awkwardly. "I just absentmindedly keep things I like in my fleece, then sort of forget I ever put it there. I can be really forgetful that way."

"Still, that's quite useful," Timburr said. "It would be nice if I had fleece to store odds and ends in. I'm always leaving nails and screws behind whenever I'm working on some construction project."

After that, the match continued. Oshawott wouldn't hear of stopping the match, and the Tech Area team and Lizzy just decided to play along, although Lizzy was reluctant. She'd had enough of beach soccer. She was not good at it at all.

She was more or less OK with it when Oshawott was doing all the dribbling and shooting and scoring, but unfortunately she wasn't about to have her way throughout the match.

"Lizzy!" Oshawott suddenly called, and before Lizzy knew what was happening, he had passed the ball to her. It miraculously reached her feet without being intercepted by anyone from the opposing team. Before she knew it, she was somehow dribbling the ball over to the Tech Area goal, which Roggenrola was guarding.

"Oshawott!" she cried, intending to pass the ball back to him so he could shoot, but Oshawott was shaking his head. He was being guarded by Timburr and Golett, so passing the ball to him was out of the question.

Lizzy was thoroughly alarmed when the truth finally dawned on her: she was going to have to shoot.

* * *

><p><em>Wow! Isn't it useful to have fleece that can also act as a storage? Lopunny also has fluffy fur, of course, but there's no way she's putting anything in it. It'd totally make her look fat.<em>

_Anyway, Lopunny's back to waving her pom-poms! Go for it, girl! You can do it! Show 'em what you've got! Shoot! Score! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a Z! Give me another Z! Give me a Y! Go, Lizzy!_

* * *

><p>...<p>

OK. We left off where Darwin had left Tepig to wait by himself in the Dance Zone. Since then, Tepig had been doing nothing but sit around in front of Chandelure's tent. He could have gone off to do something somewhere else, but he didn't. He would have loved to do that, yes, but another part of him fretted that Darwin wouldn't be able to find him when she finally came back.

Not that she did.

Tepig was starting to believe that he'd been really naive to actually expect that Darwin would return, because by this time he had already convinced himself that there really was something between Darwin and the Hypno character she had been going on about. Now he could imagine Darwin scouring the whole Wish Park to find Hypno.

Tepig sighed. He liked to think that he tries hard, but it always seemed as if his endeavors didn't end how he'd expected them to. Just like with Darwin.

"Beheaded French queen, indeed." Tepig muttered.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny is about to enter Chandelure's tent to get her Dance Inferno ready when she sees Tepig Pokabu just sitting there looking forlorn. Maybe you'd think that Lopunny was only a radio host, but she was actually also some kind of spy.<em>

_(Nah, she isn't. Just pulling your leg.)_

_However, the moment she sees Tepig alone, she knows something is wrong, so she hangs around behind him to try to hear what Tepig is mumbling. When he mentions a beheaded French queen, Lopunny knows that the problem is Darwynette de la Verde._

_She frowns. Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin isn't going well at all, but she would see if she could do anything about that. (And she always has something to do about everything. She's Lopunny, after all.)_

_Hmm, aren't you curious? What can the marvelous Lopunny do about this disaster? Stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!_


	11. Chapter 11

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

Lopunny was walking in the Dance Zone and thinking what she was going to do about Tepig's situation. She considered looking for Darwin and telling her to go back, but then decided against it. She didn't have any idea where the Roserade had gone, and searching for her would only waste time. No, she had to think of something else.

Like Darwin had been when she was talking about Hypno at the start of the Meteor Mash-up, Lopunny wasn't looking where she was going, and it wasn't long before she found herself walking straight into a fluffy cloud.

"Ah! I'm sorry. I was blocking the path." The Pokémon Lopunny had crashed into immediately turned and apologized.

"No, it's my fault," Lopunny said quickly, shaking her head. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

Suddenly Lopunny realized that she had seen this Pokémon before at the start of the Meteor Mash-up. Yes, she was the Pokémon she had seen with Darwin. "Wait, you're Darwynette's friend, aren't you? You're the one who accompanied her here."

The Pokémon nodded. "Yeah! I'm Altaria Cottonspores. I did promise Darwin I'd come and accompany her, but now since the Meteor Mash-up has started already, I was thinking of going to the Cake Zone and getting a few bites."

Lopunny's expression didn't change, but an idea was already forming in her mind.

_Oh, dear Altaria! You did say you were going to the Cake Zone, but I've got other plans for you. Yep,_ other plans_ indeed._

»̶✽«̶

Meanwhile, Tepig Pokabu was sitting idly in the Dance Zone when a smooth, soft voice interrupted him.

"Tepig? What are you doing here?"

Tepig looked up and saw that it was Froslass. Beside her was a Sableye.

"Oh, hi, Froslass!" Tepig tried to sound upbeat, but he knew he was failing at it. "Oh, and you must be Froslass' Meteor Mash-up friend."

"Yes, I'm Gremlin Ombre, but just call me Gremlin," the Sableye replied. He extended a hand and Tepig shook it.

"I'm Tepig, Tepig Pokabu." He smiled.

"Why are you sitting here alone?" Froslass asked, frowning and looking around and not seeing Darwin anywhere. "Aren't you supposed to be with Darwin?"

"She left," Tepig said shortly.

"What do you mean, she _left?!_" Froslass and Gremlin chorused. "Is that even possible to do in this Meteor Mash-up?"

"It is." Tepig shrugged. "See, I learned that the hard way."

Froslass looked bad for him. "I am sorry for you. I hope she returns soon," she said. "You do not deserve being left behind like this."

"Yeah, I hope so too," Tepig sighed. He quickly changed the subject when he began to suspect that his current predicament was putting a damper on Froslass and Gremlin as well. "Anyway, where were you two going?"

"We're going to play Chandelure's Dance Inferno." Gremlin sounded excited.

"Wow, awesome!" Tepig smiled. "Have fun, you two."

"I am sure we will!" Froslass said. "Thank you, Tepig. Well, we had better be going now."

Tepig nodded, waved, and then watched as Froslass and Gremlin vanished into Chandelure's tent. They were talking animatedly. Gremlin looked as if he was cracking a few jokes, and Froslass laughed (albeit daintily, of course).

He finally let out a sigh he had been holding in since Froslass and Gremlin stopped by.

_Huh. They're going to go and play the Dance Inferno and are laughing and joking on the way there,_ he thought. _How lucky and happy. And what am _I_ doing here? Doing nothing but sitting around waiting for something that's not even guaranteed._

* * *

><p><em>Argh, Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin is not going any better, because Darwin is still out there hunting Hypno down and leaving Tepig behind! But don't worry, dear Tepig, Lopunny's got plans and is swooping in to save the day!<em>

_...Hopefully!_

_(No but seriously, Lopunny, you need to do something to salvage this pairing. Stat.)_

* * *

><p>In Haxorus' dojo in the Power Zone, we'd left off where Breloom had accidentally punched an intimidatingly bulky Hariyama, who had immediately stormed over to Breloom and Braixen. Let's see how <em>that <em>turns out.

Hariyama finally arrived in front of Braixen and Breloom, towering over them. He was still steely-faced. Right then he was that type of toughie who intimidated people even before he said anything.

The next second, he did.

"Did you punch me, Mister Mushroom Head?" His voice was deep and rumbling. Before anyone knew it, all the Pokémon present in the dojo unconsciously turned to see what kind of Pokémon dared annoy the frighteningly bulky Hariyama.

Breloom looked straight up at him. "Sorry 'bout that," he said lightly. "I wasn't watching where I was punching. It didn't hurt, did it?" He laughed despite their current circumstances. "Of course it didn't; a little punch never hurts anyone, epecially buff guys the likes of ya."

He frowned. "Oh, and the name's Breloom, thank you very much, _not_ Mister Mushroom Head. Please, if ya want to say someone's name ya gotta make sure ya say it correctly."

Hariyama's face expression twisted into that of a small, almost invisible sneer. He suddenly turned to Braixen.

"And who's this little girlie? She your girlfriend, Mister Mushroom Head?"

Braixen looked as if she'd been struck by lightning. "No, I _most certainly_ am not!" she protested hotly. "And the name is Braixen. Braixen Ter Una. _Not_ 'this little girlie'. And I most certainly am _not_ Breloom's girlfriend!"

Hariyama only harrumphed. "Well, sure, little girlie," he said. Then, turning back to Breloom, he went on, "You sure you two aren't lost? You don't look like you're Power Bashers at all."

To Breloom's surprise it was Braixen who butted in before he could say anything. "Oh, I'm sure we aren't lost," she said haughtily with her nose in the air. She pretended to look around and take in her surroundings. "Yes, I know this is the exact place where we wanted to go. And I feel the need to warn you in advance, Mr. Hariyama, sir, that you should find out soon enough that we're way better Power Bashers than you are – or anyone else here, for that matter. That's why I advice you to take back your words."

She suddenly took out the stick that was usually sticking out of her bushy tail. One end of it was lit up with a little flame. She twirled it around her fingers, the flame darting through the air in a little arc.

"Remember. Appearances deceive," she said coolly.

Hariyama only smiled a thin smile. "We'll see about that." He nodded at both of them and stormed away.

Breloom turned to Braixen with a surprised look. "Whoa, that was some kinda nice," he said, impressed. "Ya certainly put him in his place. I was getting really tired of being called Mister Mushroom-"

"Come on," Braixen suddenly interrupted instead, grabbing his hand and tugging him away. Her face was all business.

"Wait, where are we going?"

Braixen didn't even turn back. "We're signing up, of course," she said matter-of-factly. "Don't say anything yet; we haven't really put him in his place when we haven't beaten him at his own game." She continued to drag him over to where a small Axew was standing. He was obviously the one to talk to when you wanted to sign up. "Little girlie, indeed! Oh _how_ he's gonna regret that. And bounce _faster,_ won't you, Breloom? The Power Bash can't start soon enough."

Breloom snorted and rolled his eyes, struggling to keep up. "Girls," he said under his breath. "One minute you're tugging them around. The next minute _this_ happens."

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny is amused at how fast Braixen gets from all nervous into someone totally badass. She only hopes they really do turn out to be better Power Bashers than Hariyama, because if they aren't, the only thing they're going to do is humiliate themselves (and probably receive a punch from Hariyama. Or two).<em>

* * *

><p>Now we're going through the Poster Portal and into the Arcane Area, where Roselio had just violated the two rules when it comes to interacting with thugs! He'd greeted them, and he'd greeted them in a foreign language. And <em>then<em>, as if that wasn't enough, he had asked them, "May we help you?"

"Oh yeah you may," the Krokorok sneered. "Have you seen any Lotad pass by here?"

Before the Thorn Pokémon could reply, Storm quickly spoke up, "We _may_ have seen them. Why? What business do you have with them?"

Krokorok bared his sharp teeth. "Whatever it is, it's certainly not your business."

"In that case, I'm afraid we can't help you. Come on, Roselio." She took his hand by the base of his flower as usual and began to drag him away. He was confused at the turn of events and was constantly wondering "Huh? Wait, where are we going?"

They hadn't gone a few steps before Krokorok called, "Wait."

Storm smiled victoriously and went back to them, still dragging Roselio. "What?"

"We need to see the Lotad about some items they'd collected in Treasure Town," Krokorok explained. "We heard they'd just come back from there to trade some items for much rarer ones at Croagunk's Swap Shop. Get that? _Rare_ items. Must be worth a fortune."

He stuck his snout in the air. "Y'see, together we're FANGS – Fearsome Army of Nasty Geniuses."

Storm would have loved to slap her forehead (geniuses. Only _geniuses _would tell a random Pokémon about their nasty schemes. Right, whatever you say, Krokorok), but she refrained from doing so in front of the enemy. This time, even Roselio frowned. "Wait, that's _F_earsome _A_rmy of _N_asty _G_eniuses. So what does the last S stand for?"

"Oh, that." Krokorok's face darkened. "It actually stands for 'sparkles'."

For a while, you could hear a pin drop.

And then Roselio burst out laughing!

Storm blinked and quickly turned to him, trying to will him to be quiet. She was also feeling like breaking into a fit of helpless laughter, of course, but she managed to control it. If there was something thugs extremely despised, it was being laughed at.

"Oh, _je suis désolé,_" Roselio said apologetically, calming down. "I didn't mean to insult your creativity, but don't you think 'sparkles' is ill-fitting to be included in the name of your... uh... _fearsome army?_"

Krokorok growled. "Well, that was what I thought! But Bellsprout here is the only girl, and she threatened to blab about us to the police if we don't include the word."

If anything, Roselio only found the whole explanation even funnier, and he began to laugh his head off again. Storm was still desperately trying to shoot him _SHUT UP_ signals but he got none of them.

Finally, Krokorok's patience snapped.

"You know, you're not going to tell us where they are at all," he growled. "You're only trying to test our patience! We're gonna make you regret you ever messed around with the FANGS!"

"Complete with the sparkles," Roselio said with a chuckle.

Not a good move. Krokorok's face went an amazing shade of red.

* * *

><p><em>Yikes! It doesn't seem as if Roselio knows when he should stop his joking around. Even worse, both he <em>and_ Storm are sure to pay the price for messing with the FANGS, however ugly their group name is._

_Looks like Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm just went from "messy" to "Lopunny has to stop this QUICK before she is held responsible for making bloodshed possible"._

* * *

><p>OK, now let's leave that place of "possible bloodshed" behind and return to the Dance Zone, where Staraptor and Tori had managed to collect all of the pages of Tori's manuscript with a little help from Darwin.<p>

...

Staraptor turned to the Gardevoir. "Anyway... Sorry about your b- I mean, manuscript," he grunted. "I understand if you want to return by foot now."

The Gardevoir's eyes widened. "What? Are you kidding me, Staraptor? I wouldn't want to return on foot after experiencing something as epic as fast-flying!" Then she added as an afterthought, "As long as my manuscript is securely tied, of course."

"You mean it?" Staraptor burst out.

"Of course I do!" Tori laughed pleasantly.

Staraptor smiled. "Well then, hop on. How about if we fly over the Cake Zone now? It'd be interesting to see all those cake-shaped buildings from the sky."

"Yeah! Let's!" Tori agreed, jumping onto his back. And then Staraptor and Gardevoir took to the skies once again...

...After making sure Tori's manuscript had been securely tied, of course.

»̶✽«̶

Staraptor and Tori had gone flying and landed in the various Wish Park zones. They'd seen Treecko and Amelia in the Cake Zone and glimpsed Breloom and Braixen in the Power Zone. They had lunch, they had tea.

However, Tori had to admit that she was happiest when Staraptor performed aerial acrobatics. She never knew that flying could make her feel so free. She loved feeling the breeze in her hair. Miraculously, neither her glasses nor her manuscript fell off.

* * *

><p><em>Well! At least that's one pairing going right! Lopunny is delighted to see that Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori is going marvelously well. They solved Tori's manuscript fiasco and are enjoying the skies. Tori even found something new about herself. She found the freedom of flying.<em>

_(Now Lopunny's smiling to herself because she sounded poetic. Yeah, just ignore her. She just also wants to feel what it's like to fly.)_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in the Cake Zone, Treecko and Amelia had been playing the singing game. Amelia had sung a supposedly difficult song, but Treecko had still managed to guess what song it was. He sang quietly, keeping his head down.<p>

When he met the Umbreon's eyes, she was staring at him.

"Well I'll be," she said in surprise. "I thought you wouldn't know that song, but you did. How could you know a song I made myself, Treecko?"

"Of course I know that song," answered Treecko. "You've sung that song before, when we were walking from the Dance Zone to the Cake Zone."

Amelia paused. "Well, yes, I did sing it as we were walking, but I'd never have thought you would hear it... let alone listen to it."

"Of course I would listen to your singing," Treecko said. "It's... it's really... err..." He ended his sentence by clearing his throat. Whatever words he'd planned to say got lost in the Cake Zone din.

Amelia didn't see that Treecko was flustered (which is weird given that his face had turned redder than green), so she only tilted her head and smiled at him. "Yes? What was that?"

"It's really..."

If anything, the wood gecko only got more awkward. He had to curse his ability to get along with girls. He couldn't even say one compliment decently since that was out of his character. Even if he did compliment someone, he would say it seriously, almost diplomatically. The only reason he got along pretty well with Lombre and Cleffy was because they were his teammates. They aren't in the same classification of girls as Amelia – Lombre and Cleffy are his _colleagues._ Of course they're different.

However, Treecko knew he had to try. This didn't only have to do with his Meteor Mash-up experience, but Amelia's, too. If she had a lousy time today, that would be because of him. He had to try to be less serious and to get along with _this_ kind of girl, just for today.

He cleared his throat again. Then he went on in a very quiet voice, "Your singing is... very beautiful."

He felt like kicking himself. That was all? _Your singing is very beautiful?_ That was what he went through all that trouble for?

_I'm so not good at this,_ he thought. He was positive that the others – Tepig with his cutely timid gimmick, Oshawott with his smooth operator act, Roselio with his rainbow along with the pot of gold at the end of it, Staraptor with the "cool" air about him, and even Breloom with his unwavering if sometimes overwhelming enthusiasm – were doing a much better job than he was.

However, Amelia didn't seem to mind. ("That's because girls love compliments," Darwin would have drawled. "They don't care how guys say it.")

"Why, thank you, Treecko," she said with an almost shy smile. "Not many people tell me that. That's because not many people have even heard me sing. You see, I have a bad habit of being closed off around people. I only dare open up to people I get along with and trust."

She broke off, picking up her teaspoon. She swirled it around in her milk tea, but instead of drinking it, she put it back down on her saucer deep in thought.

"It's because back where I live, I used to get teased a lot when I evolved into an Umbreon," she revealed, "because most of the girls choose to evolve into an Espeon or a pretty Glaceon, and Umbreon are usually associated with boys. Since all that, I've had trouble opening up to people. It just doesn't seem worth it – unless that person is someone I quite like."

It took Treecko an embarrassing few seconds to answer because he was pondering over what she'd just said. _It just doesn't seem worth it – unless that person is someone I quite like. _Well, the Umbreon had confided Treecko with that revelation. Does this mean he was one of those who are "worth it"? Does this mean Amelia "quite liked" him?

* * *

><p><em>Oh, oh, oh! Lopunny is positively swooning! Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia started off cold and awkward, but things are warming up at an impressive rate!<em>

_And what about the answer to that question? Did Amelia really "quite like" him...?_

_..._

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM!_


	12. Chapter 12

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

Some time later which felt like a couple of decades, poor Tepig was still sitting in the Dance Zone. Before this, he already had an idea that Darwin wasn't going to return at all, but had also been trying not to believe that at the same time. He still had hope for her to return.

Not anymore.

It was basically a fact now: Darwin wasn't coming back.

He finally decided to stop just sitting there idly. Heck, he should just go anywhere he wanted. Just like Darwin. She was free to leave him and go anywhere she wanted, right? So it should be the same with him, right?

However, before he could even get off the bench, a Pokémon with white feathers like a fluffy cloud came over.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked.

Tepig looked at her. She had blue skin and was wearing a friendly smile.

"Oh, of course not." Tepig shook his head. He finally decided not to leave. If he did, the Pokémon would think that he was leaving because of her. The Pokémon sat on the other end of the bench.

A few seconds of silence ensued. Neither Tepig nor the new Pokémon could think of anything to say.

It was finally the Pokémon who broke the silence.

"Um, I'm sorry if I am so forward, but you are Tepig Pokabu, right? Darwin's friend in the Meteor Mash-up?"

"Well, yes," Tepig said, blinking. "And you are...?"

The Pokémon extended a fluffy white wing. "I am Altaria Cottonspores," she said.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny the Spy is by now ducking back into Chandelure's tent to get ready to meet Froslass and Gremlin, hoping that her plan would work. She was lucky to have bumped into Darwin's cotton-winged and tenderhearted friend. Now if only Altaria could pull it off nicely...<em>

_If she did, then Pairing 9 wouldn't be that much of a failure after all. After all, as Lopunny always says, "When in doubt, improvise!"_

* * *

><p>...<p>

"Well, we're here!" Gremlin exclaimed once they had reached Chandelure's big tent. They went inside...

...and were immediately pounced on by Lopunny.

"Finally!" the rabbit exclaimed exasperatedly. "One of you meteor mashers decide to play Dance Inferno. What is it with you guys? I thought that on a special, romantic day like this, you would do something romantic like dancing, but _oh no._ I heard from Haxorus that two of you is playing Power Bash right now, and another pair is at Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption, but _no one_ wants to play Dance Inferno. What's wrong with it, anyway? Is it because I'm not as interesting as Haxorus or Cofagrigus?"

Gremlin laughed good-naturedly, but Froslass didn't have time for any of this.

"Yes, we would like to play the attraction, please, Lopunny."

Lopunny shot Gremlin a look that said, "Wow, has she always been this uptight?" and Gremlin just shrugged with a sharp-toothed smile.

"OK, two passes into the Dance Inferno!" she sang. "Come right in! Since this is a special day, we're having a special version of the Dance Inferno right now! It's exactly like an ordinary dance competition. You don't have to follow my awesome moves; you have to come up with your own to match the music that's playing! Of course, you'll be dancing in pairs!" She winked. "I'm the judge, of course!"

She parted the curtains and led them into the tent. Gremlin and Froslass followed, the latter hissing, "I reckon she has always been this ditzy?" to which Gremlin shrugged and smiled again.

Twinkling fairy lights were hanging overhead, and there was the usual Dance Inferno stage, illuminated with multicolored strobe lights. Pokémon were standing around in pairs, talking and laughing. There was a Beautifly with a Dustox, a Bulbasaur and a Charmander, a Bellossom and a Vileplume, a Jynx and a Medicham, and many more Pokémon pairs.

The music that was playing was a classical music to keep to the romantic theme. As Gremlin looked around, Froslass was already beginning to sway to the music.

"I am very fond of this type of music," she said.

Before they knew it, Lopunny was already on the stage, wearing a cute version of a circus ringmaster's outfit and holding a microphone.

"All right, Pokémon!" she shouted. "Ready for the Dance Inferno?!"

Everyone in the tent stopped talking among themselves and turned their attention to Lopunny. "Yeah!"

"Well, OK! As you all know, I'm going to be the judge. Here's how it works. Chandelure is going to play song after song, and you have to dance in pairs to match every song. After a song ends, I'll announce the pairings who danced well enough to go on to the next song. We'll keep having dance-offs until there's only one pairing left!"

A murmur of excitement came from the crowd. They looked excited. Froslass looked perfectly calm.

"OK, everyone onto the stage!" Lopunny exclaimed. She went offstage to let everyone on, and once everyone was ready, she tossed her head at Chandelure. "Hit it, Chandelure!"

The music started.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny is really excited. Here is a Meteor Mash-up pairing, playing <em>her _attraction! (OK, so it's actually Chandelure's, but she's the star of the Dance Inferno, so yeah.) She can't wait to see Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass dance~!_

* * *

><p><em>...<em>

Unlike some other pairings, Amelia and Treecko were in a polite and civilised conversation far from resembling possible bloodshed. Amelia had said that she only opened up to people she "quite liked", which left Treecko with a train of thoughts. She'd just opened up to him... so does that mean she "quite liked" him?

That was when he realized that it was his turn to say something.

"Ah... err... I'm... err... sorry," he finally stuttered. "Yeah, that sounds really... not... fun."

"_Not fun"? Treecko, you are a genius_, he seethed inwardly.

However, Amelia was laughing. "Treecko, you're cute when you're stammering," she said good-naturedly. "Hah, your face is red! You look like you just took a bath in tomato ketchup."

Luckily, Treecko was at that exact moment saved from more embarrassment by the arrival of Rem and Lombre. They were carrying two armloads of what seemed to be cakes and other sweet treats.

"Hello, you two," Lombre said. "Guess what I won in the Cake Contraption."

"_We,_" Rem corrected. "Guess what _we_ won in the Cake Contraption. No. What's more on the dot is 'Guess what _I_ won in the Cake Contraption', because though it was a tie, I obviously had more flair." He turned to Treecko and Amelia. "She's only sharing the prize."

"Oh, you're such a sweet couple, aren't you," Amelia joked sarcastically.

Rem and Lombre managed an indignant "WE ARE NOT" before telling Treecko and Amelia what they were doing there with all their treats.

"Want to have them?" Lombre offered. "Rem and I have had our share, and we honestly can't eat any more. He's afraid of getting fat."

"You're the one who was afraid," Rem hissed.

By this time, luckily for our poor and socially rigid wood gecko, he had managed to put his collected act back on.

"I will have two slices of that red velvet cake, please," he said smoothly.

"And I'll have that cupcake, please," Amelia said, pointing at a cute little cupcake.

Rem and Lombre gaped at the little amount they were eating. "We thought you'd want all of it!" Lombre exclaimed.

Treecko told her that they really couldn't eat that much. "Besides, we've already ordered snacks," he went on.

Rem and Lombre still looked skeptical, but finally walked back into the Cake Contraption building carrying the rest of their prize. Treecko and Amelia watched them leave.

"They look like they're perfect for each other," Amelia joked. "They walk back into the cake building, and then Rem is going to surprise Lombre... with a food fight."

Treecko's eyes lit up with amusement. "I wouldn't put that past them," he agreed.

* * *

><p><em>Stammering! Awkwardness! Oh, the fluff of it all! It's enough to make Lopunny's teeth hurt! However, she's ecstatic to see how well Treecko and Amelia are getting along with each other! Oh, those two are so adorable~!<em>

* * *

><p>A little while before all that, in that very Cake Zone but inside the cake-shaped building, Rem and Lombre had been given the pile of sweet treats as a prize for winning the Cake Contraption.<p>

The funny thing was, Rem and Lombre seemed to completely forget about their argument the second they realized that the delicious treats were theirs.

"WHOOO! AWESOME!" they shouted, grabbing cupcakes of their favorite flavors (luckily, their favorite flavors are different. If not, you could be sure that another argument would have ensued).

For a while they amused themselves with stuffing sweets into their mouths, but as they always say, too much of anything is not good for you. At one point, both felt stuffed, but there were still so many sweets left over.

"What do you suppose we should do with all these cakes?" Lombre asked forlornly.

"You eat 'em. I'm full," Rem grumbled.

"No way!" Lombre protested. "I'll get fat."

Rem rolled his eyes as if he was thinking something around the lines of "girls will be girls."

That was when he got an idea. "Wait! We could give them to the pairing outside, the one having tea in that cafe. Whatsername... your friend Treecko and Amelia the Umbreon?"

"Oh yeah! Finally, you're thinking sense," Lombre joked, but she helped Rem gather the remaining cakes and take them outside.

...  
>Treecko took two slices of red velvet cake. Amelia took one cupcake, and that was it.<p>

Lombre and Rem gaped at the tiny amount they were eating. "We thought you'd want all of it," Lombre said.

Treecko politely told them that they really couldn't eat that much. Besides, they'd already ordered snacks. In short, it was a typical Treecko Kimori "thank you, but no thank you".

"All right, so that's two slices of cake and a cupcake down," Lombre said once they were back in Cofagrigus' empty cake-shaped building. "That didn't really make a difference, did it."

"Yeah, but at least we're eliminating stuff slowly but sure-" Rem was starting to say as he entered when he stepped on a berry shooter, which rolled and threw him off-balance. As a result, the lemon meringue cake he was carrying toppled and fell into a bright yellow mess...

...all over Lombre's favorite combat boots.

»̶✽«̶

Lombre gaped at him for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what he'd just done.

However, the next second, she was grinning and picking up a chocolate cupcake.

And then she whooped, "_FOOD FIGHT!_" and promptly opened fire.

Rem screeched when he cupcake hit its target and became a muddy brown mess on his prized cotton hair.

"Not my hair!" he shouted. "I'll get you back for that!"

He grabbed a blueberry cupcake and threw it at Lombre, who ducked behind a table. The cupcake went splat on Cofagrigus' previously clean counter.

Lombre's head protruded from behind the table and she stuck her tongue out in an extremely annoying manner. "Ha-ha, missed me!"

"Oh yeah? There's more where that came from!" Rem snarled, grabbing a whole box of the blueberry cupcakes. He began to hurl them quickly so that the cupcakes rained on Lombre like bullets shot from a machine gun.

However, she wasn't out of ideas. She grabbed a wooden rolling pin from Cofagrigus' counter and used it to deflect some of Rem's cupcake missiles, but to Rem's delight, one managed to get past her defenses and made a mess of her lily pad sombrero.

He guwaffed in satisfaction. "And that, _Señorita,_ was a clean headshot." He sneered. "I gotta admit, though, you have pretty nice reflexes for a gir-"

He stopped speaking due to the unfortunate incident of a whole apple pie hitting his face.

Grumbling and cursing, he tried to wipe the sticky remains off his face and glared at the snickering Lombre. "What the hell? That was _a whole apple pie!_"

"Sí, that was a whole apple pie which you should have been able to deflect had you not been yammering your mouth off," Lombre said lightly. She looked at her nails. "Or are you implying that my reflexes are much better than yours, hmm?"

"Of course not, you haven't seen anything yet," Rem grumbled. He grabbed a huge piece of marshmallow and rolled it in chocolate, vanilla, tiramisu, and lemon meringue cake, creating a messy bomb-like ball. Then he grabbed a cupcake and threw it at the Jolly Pokémon. As he knew she would, she dodged it, but as she did so, she fell right into the line of fire of his newly-invented bomb.

There was a most satisfactory _SPLAT_ as his bomb made a direct hit. By the time the sticky cake had dripped off her face, she was wide-eyed with surprise and you could no longer see the skull patterns on her boots and bandanna.

Like I said earlier, Lombre wasn't your typical girl for she was grinning excitedly instead of freaking out. "_¡Muy bien!_ That was an awesome strategy!" she exclaimed. "_Caramba,_ that was exactly like something Treecko would have come up with."

Then a smirk replaced her previously excited expression. "Of course, it'll take a lot more than that to take me down," she challenged smugly.

Rem grinned, accepting it. "Good, because I was just getting started."

* * *

><p><em>Hmm. Maybe this is Rem's and Lombre's version of a ceasefire? At least they're now having... fun? At least they're having fun together, right...?<em>

_Lopunny can't understand them. In fact, she's horrified. What's so fun about a food fight?!_

* * *

><p>... OK, that's enough of the food fight, thank you. We're about to go back to one of those pairings categorized under "possible bloodshed" for a minute.<p>

Yep, we'd left off where Roselio had angered Krokorok until his patience had snapped. Even Lopunny isn't thrilled to see what Krokorok might do next.

"Take this, you stupid weed!" Krokorok growled, attacking Roselio with Foul Play. However, he simply somersaulted out of the way and smiled at him. "Was that all?"

_Oops._ Storm desperately wished she could make him be quiet, because the only thing Roselio seemed to be doing was anger Krokorok.

After a few more missed Foul Plays, Krokorok glared at the rest of the FANGS. "What are you idiots doing, just standing around?! Attack!"

At that, Krokorok's cronies seemed to snap out of their trance. Flanking Krokorok, they began to surround Storm and Roselio, forcing them to the middle of the field.

Seeing that they were helplessly surrounded, Roselio asked, "_Bon,_ where do we go from here?"

Storm grumbled in annoyance. _Now _he's asking! "Next time, ask that _before_ you anger the enemies."

She glanced around at the FANGS... and what she saw wasn't good. Krokorok was a Ground-type, dangerous to Electric-types like herself. Also, her Electric-type attacks, like her trusty Volt Tackle, wouldn't work on him. Magmar and Glalie were Fire- and Ice-types, respectively, and with moves of those types, they could certainly mow Roselio down double-fast. The only one who wasn't really a threat was Bellsprout, whom Roselio could (probably) defeat with some Poison Jabs.

_Another oops._

* * *

><p><em>Another oops indeed. Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm has just gone out of the frying pan and into the fire.<em>

_What can they do to get out of that fix now?_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in the Beach Cove, Lizzy the Flaaffy had just come to this terrifying bit of news: she was going to have to shoot the ball.<p>

"Come on, Lizzy! You can do it! Just kick it as hard as you can!"

Suddenly Oshawott's voice broke into her thoughts. He was shouting at her, he was encouraging her, but if anything, it only made Lizzy stress out even more. "I can't!" she wailed.

"Sure you can," Oshawott shouted back. By this time, Timburr was leaving Oshawott and heading straight for her. If she didn't shoot soon, he would surely steal the ball from her. "I know you can do it, Lizzy! I believe in you. You should do the same, you know."

Lizzy blinked. _You should do the same, you know._ It was said in a light and nonchalant voice, but it was what she needed to hear. Yes. It was high time Lizzy the Flaaffy actually believed in herself, because, you know, _others did._

Lizzy kicked the ball as hard as she could...

...which unfortunately wasn't that hard at all.

Instead of flying into the air like Oshawott's, Timburr's, and Golett's kicks, the ball only rolled on the ground weakly, since it was an undeniably weak kick on Lizzy's part.

She groaned. _See!_ She couldn't do these things right at all. Now Roggenrola was sure to catch the ball.

_Not!_

Since he was expecting the ball to fly into the air like the boys' kicks had, Roggenrola was jumping and trying to protect the top half of the goal. He was leaving the bottom half unprotected.

And since Lizzy's kick was so weakly executed, the ball simply rolled slowly into the unprotected bottom half of the goal.

Lizzy's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe it. She, Lizzy, had just scored a goal in a game of beach soccer!

"WHOOOOO!" Oshawott was cheering and jumping. He ran right over to her, his face practically beaming. "See! I knew you could do it. I'm never wrong." His face expression promptly turned into the usual haughty one. "Great strategy, Lizzy! Instead of kicking really powerfully, you took them by surprise with an advertently weak one. Nice. Even _I_ never thought of that before."

"I think I was just lucky," Lizzy said lamely. "And it wasn't because I had a strategy in mind, that was the most powerful kick I could manage, I'm afraid."

Oshawott paused, then grinned. "Whatever!" he laughed. "The only thing important now is that we're winning!"

Before anyone knew what was happening, Oshawott was mashing Lizzy into a hearty team hug. Most boys who played soccer did that to celebrate their goals, only it seemed as if Oshawott had forgotten that Lizzy wasn't a boy. At all.

When he finally released her, she was blushing like crazy and even more awkward than before.

* * *

><p><em>ABOUT TIME! The first Meteor Mash-up hug! Maybe Lopunny's overreacting, but it's. The. First. Meteor. Mash-up. HUG.<em>

_OK, so Oshawott did it on impulse. OK, so he probably forgot that Lizzy was a girl. But it's. Still. The. First. Meteor. Mash-up. HUG._

_Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy is coming along brilliantly, Lopunny is ecstatic to say!_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone~!_


	13. Chapter 13

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

...

After a while of back-and-forth cake-hurling, there was no longer a surface in Cofagrigus' room that wasn't covered with sticky icing. Lombre had made a fort of ruined cakes behind Cofagrigus' table, stocking up on countless ammunition and armed with her trusty rolling pin. Rem, meanwhile, had taken shelter behind Cofagrigus' throne, making more of his innovative bombs.

You'd wonder how they were going to clean up the whole room before Cofagrigus came back, but at that moment, the thought hadn't crossed their minds yet. The only thing they had in mind was that they needed to defeat the other, and that none of them was about to cease fire. In fact, they were now about to begin attacking again since Lombre had a dripping slice of cake in her hand and Rem had one of his bombs in his. They both threw their weapons at the same time...

And suddenly, the door opened.

A face poked into the room, unfortunately at exactly the wrong time.

Since Cofagrigus' throne and Rem's shelter were directly opposite the door, it was no surprise that his bomb might stray to ridiculous destinations, such as the unlucky visitor's face. The visitor, however, got taken completely by surprise.

Darwynette de la Verde let out a high-pitched scream when Rem's highly effective bomb collided with her face, instantly coating her face and the white petals on her head with sticky goo. Her hands flew to her face, attempting to wipe it off.

Once she had succeeded in more or less clearing up her face, she glared at Rem. (Lombre was invisible and amazingly hadn't heard a thing due to being buried in a mound of ruined cake that was her fort.)

"_You!_" Darwin howled. "The rowdy pairing, I should have known! Look what you've done, it'll take hours to clear my petals of this disgusting, sticky stuff!"

"Sorry," said Rem breezily, readying another bomb.

Darwin wasn't quite finished yet. "I knew you two would come up with barbaric ideas like this. Only Pokémon like you could come up with a food fight to spend a special, romantic day!" She stamped her feet when lemon yellow icing dripped onto her forehead. "You two are obnoxious, immature, out of your right minds, and disgusting! That's right - totally, utterly, absolutely _disgusting!_"

Then she disappeared outside again, slamming the door behind her.

Finally, Lombre poked her head out of her mound of ruined cake. "Who was that? It wasn't Cofagrigus, was it?"

"No." Rem rolled his eyes. "It was some Roserade with a bad temper."

"Darwin." Lombre knew exactly who it was. "What'd she say?"

"Oh, stuff like how obnoxious and immature and out of our right minds and disgusting we are. Emphasis on disgusting."

"Oh, that." Lombre shrugged lightly. "That's expected of her. Although I have to wonder why she isn't with Tepig... But whatever. Carry on."

Rem grinned and threw the bomb he was holding.

_SPLAT._

* * *

><p><em>Oops. Lopunny is grimacing. Darwin wouldn't have liked that at all. (And neither would she if she had been in Darwin's place. She would have High Jump Kicked Rem for sure, that disgusting Whimsicott.<em>

_Well, at least two certain Pokémon are having fun, however abnormal the activity is..._

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back at the cafe, Treecko and Amelia had been joking around about the possibility of Rem and Lombre having a food fight. They pictured the two of them building forts out of ruined cake and making sticky secret weapons. They pictured Cofagrigus' room looking as if a bomb filled with cake had hit it. It was an <em>imaginatively<em> funny picture, indeed.

Amelia chuckled, and then shook her head. "Uh... what were we talking about before they came?"

"You were telling me that you used to get teased for evolving into an Umbreon."

"Oh yeah." Amelia rolled her eyes. "Well, why don't we talk about more enlightening topics, huh? What were we doing before we talked about _that?_"

"We were singing."

"Oh yeah!" Amelia's eyes lit up. Treecko noticed that she had considerably become more talkative. _That's because she opens up to people she quite likes,_ he thought. He couldn't help but blush again.

"Speaking of singing, I'm actually writing a new song," Amelia said, taking out a few papers from who-knows-where. "Would you like to listen to it? I also need your feedback, Treecko. It's not often that I meet someone who's as passionate about these stuff as me and doesn't think I'm weird."

Treecko scooted a tiny bit closer to her and looked at the papers. Some of them contained song lyrics, but he also found that she also liked writing stories. In short, she was the really artsy kind of Umbreon.

He looked down and started to read the lyrics of Amelia's new song.

"Hmm, let me see..."

...

Some time later, Amelia's new song was finished. She tried singing it in that beautiful, musical voice of hers, and Treecko, typically, joined in not long after. This time he dared sing a little louder. His voice was not bad at all for someone who hardly ever practiced the art.

When they were finished, Amelia was ecstatic.

"Oh, that was marvelous!" she exclaimed happily. "Your ideas were awesome, Treecko! You're really good with words." She beamed at him.

Treecko's face went even redder. Like he had been with giving compliments, he also rarely got them from girls in Amelia's group. He wasn't used to it at all.

"Uh... th-thanks?"

Amelia laughed. "You're stammering again!"

And again, Treecko found himself being saved by the arrival of yet another Pokémon.

"Bravo, bravo, _très bien._"

They looked up with surprise and saw Darwin emerge from behind a cotton candy machine.

"I have to admit that was really cool," said the Roserade when she came to their table. "You two have nice voices. Yup, you make a really cute couple; almost as cute as Hypno and I."

Treecko's face went red again, this time because of annoyance.

"Were you eavesdropping on us?" he asked coldly.

Darwin glared. "Eavesdropping? Oh, so I compliment you and _that's_ what I get in return?" She sniffed and stuck her nose in the air. "Huh, I shouldn't have expected more from young ones like you."

Amelia, however, had been staring at the white petals on Darwin's head. She squinted.

"Wait... is that _lemon meringue_ on your petals...?"

"What?!" Darwin looked alarmed and quickly grabbed a sheet of tissue from the table, furiously trying to wipe her petals clean. "Oh, no. _Non non non non non!_ I already told them getting this sticky stuff off my petals would be the death of me. I thought I'd cleaned everything up, but... argh! Now my roses are all sticky too!"

Amelia got another tissue and attempted to help her. "What just happened?"

"They had a food fight, of course!" Darwin snapped furiously. "They had to be in the middle of a stupid _food fight_ the exact second I went in."

She finally threw her arms up and gave up.

"Whatever," she said, grabbing the tissue out of Amelia's paw. "I'm going. I can't stand this awful muckiness." With that, she began to walk away, lemon meringue still dripping onto her forehead. Treecko and Amelia could still hear her complaining as she got farther and farther.

What was more unfortunate for our poor Darwin was that she'd been so frustrated that she'd forgotten to ask Treecko and Amelia whether or not they'd seen Hypno.

Back at the cafe, Treecko turned to Amelia in disbelief.

"You were right," he said. "They had a food fight."

Amelia laughed.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny shakes her head, still feeling bad for Darwin. Karma certainly came and bit her. Hard.<em>

_However, she is thrilled with the progress Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia is making. At first, they were as cold as the inside of Blizzard Cave, but now they're singing and making up songs together. How adorable!_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Storm and Roselio were far from doing anything adorable. In fact, they – or rather, Roselio – had gotten themselves into a hard-to-get-out-of tangle with the FANGS. Storm saw that type-wise, the thugs had advantage over them, and they were helplessly surrounded.<p>

For the first time in a long while, she began to doubt her own battling abilities. She doubted if they could get out of this fix that smoothly. She became even surer of that when she remembered that she and Roselio were still injured after their battle earlier.

As the FANGS closed in, Roselio gulped. "Uhh, Storm, I honestly think we're in dire need of a plan right now."

Now Storm felt like strangling him for real! _He was the one who got us into this mess, _she thought, _and now he's pestering me for plans. Hopeless. He's just hopeless when it comes to stuff like this._

Krokorok sneered as the FANGS reduced Storm's and Roselio's ground slowly but surely...

_Wait._

_Ground._

_That's it!_

Suddenly Storm remembered about her fourth move. It might just be their ticket out of there! She suddenly grabbed Roselio by his arm and shouted, "Hang on!"

At that exact moment, the FANGS lunged forward at them, but were surprised when they only struck thin air – Storm and Roselio had simply vanished. The only thing left of them was a hole in the ground.

"_Poison Jab!_"

The weird occurence of Bellsprout suddenly slamming onto the ground out cold next to Krokorok made him turn around, just in time to see the Pikachu and the Roselia land on the ground perfectly, the latter executing a perfect somersault and drawing his thorny vines back into his roses.

"What the-?!" Krokorok gasped.

Electricity was leaping out of Storm's cheeks as she smugly replied, "Oh, that? That was only a speedy escape with Dig that allowed us to emerge aboveground behind you, followed by a swift Poison Jab. Quite nifty, wouldn't you say?"

Storm had by now recovered some of her confidence. _Thank Arceus I'm so used to battling that I can make split-second strategies like that,_ she thought. One down, three to go. Hey, they might actually win this thing after all.

Krokorok gritted his teeth. "You two! Attack!" he shouted at Magmar and Glalie. At Krokorok's command, Magmar and Glalie advanced on Roselio and Storm. Magmar was firing up a Flamethrower. Storm, meanwhile, was thinking hard. It was going to be difficult to defeat these two. She only had Dig to defeat Magmar, and Roselio was weak to their Fire- and Ice-type attacks.

Surprisingly, it was Roselio who came up with a plan.

"Go and stand in the sidelines!" he hissed to Storm. "I've got a plan."

Storm stared at him incredulously. Go and stand in the sidelines? What kind of order was _that? _Besides, she was the powerhouse, not him. What plan could he have to defeat these thugs?

"Go and stand in the sidelines and when Magmar fires his Flamethrower, use Dig on him," Roselio went on, nudging her urgently.

Storm didn't budge. By this time, Glalie had gone over to their other side so he was opposite Magmar with Storm and Roselio in the middle. They were flanked by the thugs on each side.

Roselio turned to Storm. "This'll work. Trust me," he said.

Storm finally had no choice but to comply. After taking a moment to glare at him, she fled and stood behind Magmar, leaving Roselio still surrounded.

Despite that, Magmar and Glalie didn't move. She wasn't the one they were after, anyway – the little Roselia was right there, and he was easy picking.

"I hope your plan doesn't involve yourself getting killed," Storm called. "I'll never know what to tell your sister if that's the case."

Roselio only smiled.

And then Magmar opened fire.

The flames got nearer and nearer, but Roselio didn't seem to have any intention to move.

Storm wondered what his plan was, but it was already time for her to go underground to get ready to use Dig. The last things she saw were the flames getting nearer yet, and that behind Roselio, Glalie was also preparing an attack. To her surprise, she felt worried about him. It was understandable – she was used to being the leader, used to knowing what will happen. Now she could only follow his orders, hoping that he knew what he was doing.

Meanwhile, up there in the line of fire, Roselio could see the flames up close. He could even feel the heat. There was a moment when the thought _dear Arceus I'm not sure I know what I'm doing_ crossed his mind, as the flames got closer and closer and closer still. Even worse, he could see from the corner of his eye that Glalie was coming closer for an Ice Fang. Closer and _closer_ and...

And at the last minute, he moved.

Missing the flames by _that much_, Roselio landed on the ground neatly and looked back just in time to see Glalie get enveloped in Magmar's fire, shouting and cursing and telling Magmar to stop. Finally, Magmar did stop, noting with amazement what he'd just done, but by that time, the damage had been done, and it was a lot of damage, too.

And that was before Storm joined in the party.

Suddenly, she burst out of the ground right from under Magmar, knocking him forward and flailing. Roselio saw his chance and hit Glalie with Poison Jab, knocking him forward in Magmar's direction. Magmar and Glalie crashed into each other in the middle and promptly fell down in a messy, stunned heap. All that happened in less than a minute.

Roselio went over to the Pikachu. "Hey, that Dig was really well-timed!" he said brightly. "Nice one!"

Storm had to smile. "And that was a daring but good plan," she said. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

Their little party was rudely interrupted by Krokorok.

"Don't be too happy yet!" he snarled, flexing his fingers and showing off his claws. "You haven't gotten past me yet!"

Storm and Roselio exchanged meaningful glances and grinned. "If you're that badly looking for a fight, we'll gladly give you one," Storm said.

With that, Krokorok growled and ran at them, trying to attack with Foul Play. His attack was too easy and Storm and Roselio could already see him coming. They both darted out of the way. Krokorok had to screech to a stop and looked back and forth between the Pikachu and the Roselia, wondering who he'd attack.

Naturally, he decided to go after Storm. Before she could do anything, he had scored a Scary Face, slowing her down. He was off the next second, charging with a Bulldoze. It hit hard, knocking her back onto the grass. She tried to use Agility to get some speed back up, but Krokorok had already beaten her to it with another Scary Face.

"Shoot," Storm thought, knowing that her speed was now severely low. If Krokorok attacked again, she wouldn't be able to dodge it. Krokorok was this time running towards her with a Foul Play (luckily he wasn't smart enough to choose Bulldoze again).

That was when Roselio simply burst out of nowhere, shooting a shower of petals from his roses. They hit the Ground-type and blocked his view for a moment. The next moment, he had drawn his vines from inside his roses and hit Krokorok with Poison Jabs.

Growling with frustration, Krokorok swiped at the pesky petals with his claws, clearing his view for a moment...

...to see Roselio's thorny vines about to hit his face.

Although Krokorok pretty much wasn't a genius, he was a fast thinker unlike Magmar and Glalie. He quickly used Swagger on the Roselia, making his next attacks miss.

Now Krokorok could concentrate on Storm. He used Foul Play again and again (see, I did say he wasn't a genius), whittling at her health. Storm gasped when she fell to the ground again, the breath knocked out of her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Roselio snap out of his confusion and stand up, dazed. She also saw Krokorok coming in with another Foul Play. She knew she couldn't take much more of this. She braced herself for the knockout blow...

* * *

><p><em>Aaah! Lopunny covers her eyes with her fluffy ears. She can't bear to watch...<em>

_Dear reader, tell Lopunny when it's over, yeah?_

* * *

><p>...<p>

Axew looked pleased when Braixen told him that she and Breloom were going to sign up for the Power Bash.

"Ah, finally, a Meteor Mash-up pairing who decides to play Power Bash," he said happily. "You see, every fourteenth of February, we have a special kind of Power Bash because of the Meteor Mash-up. Instead of going up there alone, you get to go in a pair. So that means you're going together, and the other non-Meteor Mash-up participants are supposed to find a teammate to play with. Haxorus and Lopunny were the ones who thought of this idea to make the Meteor Mash-up even more fun—"

"Yeah yeah, we get it," Braixen interrupted impatiently. "Please, can't we just sign up now? And if it's possible, I'd like to participate in the same game Hariyama is participating in."

"Oh, Hariyama, is it? Yes, I'm sure I can arrange that. But why would you want to go up against Hariyama? He's one of our best Power Bashers so far."

"So if we win against this Hariyama guy, we'd be beating the reigning champion," Braixen said in satisfaction. "That's even better, then."

Axew shrugged. "Well, OK, if that's what you wish. Here you go, Miss, two passes into the 5.00 PM Power Bash, the same one in which Hariyama is participating."

"Great!" Braixen laughed, accepting the passes from Axew.

* * *

><p><em>... Reigning champion, huh? Well then, Hariyama must be really tough.<em>

_Lopunny hopes that Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen really is as good as how Braixen implied. Please. Lopunny doesn't need any more pairings to go wrong at this point, thank you very much. Or is that too much to ask?_

_It's been a chapter filled with fights (except for Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia, who are sitting close to each other making songs), from food fights to fights with thugs to fights picked with intimidatingly tough reigning champions. Stay in your seats and stay tuned on Wish Park FM, people. This had better have a good ending._


	14. Chapter 14

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

Oshawott, Lizzy, and the Tech Area 'mons were playing beach soccer when a shadow passed right by them. They looked up and saw that it was Pelipper the wandering postal carrier.

"Letter for Timburr of the Tech Area!" he called before dropping the correct letter out of his large beak. Timburr caught it and after hollering a "Thanks, Pelipper!" he read the letter.

He groaned. "Aww man, Conkeldurr needs me at the Train Depot right now," he told his Tech Area friends. "He wants Gurdurr and I to work on some project." He pouted. "I guess I'm gonna have to sit out the next match."

Lizzy glanced at Oshawott's bandaged toe and blurted out, "I'm not even sure there's going to _be_ a next match." She regretted it the second she said it. There she goes again, leaping before looking first.

Oshawott looked as if he was about to protest, but luckily Golett and Roggenrola agreed with Lizzy. "Yeah, and besides, I promised Golurk I'd return soon," Golett added, looking apologetic. "And you should rest that foot, Oshawott. Looked as if you stubbed it pretty hard."

"It wasn't _that_ hard," Oshawott protested, but he was already overruled.

The Tech Area Pokémon said their goodbyes to Oshawott and Lizzy (there was no need to say goodbye to Drilbur, since he'd taken his leave quite a while ago) and set off.

Oshawott and Lizzy were left standing on the beach, waving at the vanishing figures of Timburr, Golett, and Roggenrola. Well, at least Lizzy was waving; Oshawott seemed to be doing more complaining than waving.

"There's nothing wrong with my foot, for Arceus' sake," he grumbled under his breath. "And what are we supposed to do now? This Meteor Mash-up is supposed to end at dusk. Lopunny's not gonna like it if we return early. We can't play beach soccer, that's for sure, since there's only the two of us and Drilbur."

He turned to the mound of dirt into which Drilbur had disappeared into and sighed. "OK, no. Drilbur's taken his leave also."

"Well then, we won't play beach soccer," Lizzy answered in a matter-of-fact manner.

Oshawott frowned. "OK, but what can we do besides play beach soccer?"

Lizzy held up a finger in another watch-and-learn gesture. And then she rummaged even deeper into her fleece.

Oshawott was staring out at the afternoon horizon when Lizzy spoke up again. When he turned to her, she was holding up a pack of playing cards.

"How about this?" she asked.

* * *

><p><em>Lizzy just pulled out a stack of cards from inside her fleece. How did she do that? Lopunny's beginning to think that she'd choose the fleece compartment over not looking fat. It's way more useful than she originally thought.<em>

_What are they going to do with the cards, hmm~? Is Lizzy going to do a trick with them, too? She's beginning to seem as if she has a lot of tricks up her fleece!_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, inside Chandelure's tent, the Dance Inferno was just getting started. During the first few rounds, Lopunny played classical music, the kind of which Froslass liked. Froslass and Gremlin found it rather easy to literally dance their way into the later rounds (because Froslass seemed to know what she was doing and what they should be doing.)<p>

"This is very fun," said Froslass, twirling. "Uh-uh," Gremlin commented shortly. He actually wished Lopunny would pick up the pace.

Suddenly, Lopunny did.

"OK, Chandelure! Let's kick it up a notch!"

Chandelure seemed to know perfectly what she meant, because the next song that played was a significantly faster song.

It was as if someone had lit Gremlin's fire.

"Finally!" he cheered, breaking into a frenzy of (weird-looking, it seemed to Froslass) dance moves. "C'mon, Froslass! This is fun!"

However, the Ice-type was just hovering there rigid.

Gremlin stopped. "Froslass? What's wrong?"

Froslass blinked blankly at the dancing pairs around her. "I... I cannot dance to this type of music!" she said.

Gremlin didn't see the difference between the previous kind of music and this one. "Uh, why not? Just do what you did earlier. As far as I could see, you were really good at dancing!"

"Yes. To _that_ kind of music. You do understand that dancing also has a method, do you not? I happened to know how to dance the waltz, but I have not yet gained any knowledge on how to dance to _this_ kind of music."

That was when Gremlin saw that Lopunny was staring at them. It was understandable – the other pairs were all dancing and they were the only ones who were staying still. Gremlin got the drift that if they didn't start dancing soon, Lopunny would eliminate them next. (And Lopunny was merciless – she'd already eliminated Dustox and Beautifly because they just fluttered around and didn't seem to have any clear dance moves.)

Froslass was just standing there when someone tapped her arm. When she looked down, Gremlin was holding out his hand.

"Here," he said. "Will you let me hold your hand?"

At first Froslass looked clueless as she stared at him, but then she seemed to snap out of her trance. Her face expression softened.

"Very well," she said quietly, taking his hand.

He flinched as soon as he touched it. "Yikes, your hand is really cold!"

Froslass' grip on his hand weakened. "I apologize. It slipped my mind how uncomfortable it is for people when you have no body warmth. Perhaps this is not such a good idea..."

"No, it's OK!" Gremlin said brightly, not letting go of her ice-cold hand. "C'mon, let's dance!"

"Very well," Froslass said again, letting the Sableye pull her to the center of the stage.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny is making a mental note as she fangirls. She classifies this under "The First Meteor Mash-up Romantic Hand-holding". Note that she has added the adjective "romantic", because she did see that Breloom was also holding Braixen's hand when he towed her unceremoniously to Haxorus' dojo. She narrows her eyes. She will pretend that she did not see that happening. At all.<em>

* * *

><p>OK, now let's go back to the Arcane Area, shall we? Last we checked, a lot of things were going on there, such as the fact that Krokorok was about to finish Storm off with a last Foul Play. Let's see how that turned out. (Oh, and Lopunny's still got her ears over her eyes, so do tell her when it's over.)<p>

...

Things weren't looking good at all. Storm was on the ground, severely slowed down due to a lot of Scary Faces. Roselio had just recovered from confusion. Krokorok was coming in with another Foul Play. Storm braced herself for the knockout blow...

Suddenly, in a mere matter of seconds, something came between her and Krokorok. At first, she thought the group of Lotad had accidentally run in his path, but on seeing the specks of red and blue fly into the air, she realized that it was Roselio.

She hardly noticed when the Grass-type slammed onto the ground beside her painfully. In her mind, she was playing over and over again what he had just done. He had taken the hit.

"He took the hit," she thought. "What a foolish, reckless, stupid thing to do."

Yes, it was foolish, reckless, and stupid, but she couldn't help but acknowledge a foreign feeling buried deep somewhere inside.

Storm got another surprise when she snapped out of her reverie, because when she looked down, Roselio's vine was wrapped around her hand.

"Let's go!" he said urgently, grimacing. "Let's move before he attacks again." With that, he pulled her to her feet and they darted away from Krokorok just in time, because the next moment Krokorok used another Foul Play.

Both Storm and Roselio were panting now. _We won't be able to withstand much more,_ Storm thought. Roselio seemed to read her mind. "I have a feeling we need to end this battle quick," he said. "Luckily, he's also almost fainted. We just need to land the knockout blow." He turned to Storm.

The Pikachu stared at him. "You do it."

"What?" Roselio couldn't believe his ears. He hadn't expected that at all. He thought the aggressive Pikachu would want to be the one who did it.

Storm was shaking her head. "I don't have any suitable moves. You do it."

Roselio blinked but finally shrugged and gave in. "OK," he said and ran towards Krokorok with a grin as petals began to swirl around him.

"Petal Dance!" he exclaimed, the petals enveloping Krokorok in a mad swirl of red and blue. When the dust cleared, Krokorok was lying stunned on the ground.

Meanwhile, Magmar, Glalie, and Bellsprout had just recovered. They took one look at their fallen boss, another at Storm and Roselio, and finally at one another.

"Let's get out of here!" they cried. Magmar and Glalie rushed over to their leader and simply dragged him away, while Bellsprout scurried behind them. They got smaller and smaller in the distance until they vanished from view.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny removes one of her ears from in front of her eyes, heaving a mighty sigh of relief. Whew! She's glad there was no bloodshed after all. Also, Pairing 9: Roselio x Storm can almost be adorable when they try.<em>

_She can't help but smile to herself. She has a feeling that both Storm and Roselio learned a lot of new things today. Right~?_

* * *

><p>...<p>

Finally, the 5.00 PM Power Bash was about to start. Breloom and Braixen were showed to a kind of open terrace decorated in the same style as the rest of the dojo. Near the edge was a trapdoor. Here was where they were supposed to attack any Pokémon who appeared and drop any bombs by opening the trapdoor.

"OK, how are we going to do this?" Braixen asked. "I think we need a strategy."

Breloom huffed. "Now you're talking like Treecko. Strategy this and strategy that. Why won't people just wing it?"

"Because we need to beat Hariyama, that's why," Braixen said flatly. "I have an idea. How about if we take turns every few minutes or so? That way we won't get too tired."

"Whatever ya say," said Breloom.

"I'm counting on you, you know." Braixen stared at him. "You'd better not drop any Pokémon or punch any bombs or get attacked by any Pokémon or I'm gonna be really mad."

"Yeah yeah." Breloom rolled his eyes. "You'd better not mess up, too. You're the one who's suddenly really fired up for this whole thing."

"But it was your idea in the first place!"

Before Braixen could say anything else, Axew's voice blared over the loudspeakers announcing that the Power Bash was about to start. Both Braixen and Breloom were forced to quiet down.

"Well. Best of luck," Breloom said nonchalantly.

"You too." Braixen still had on that same determined expression. "Wait and see; we're going to beat Hariyama at his own game!"

* * *

><p><em>Beating Hariyama at his own game sounds like a good plan. Just make sure you two are actually up for it, dear Braixen! With Roselio's and Storm's FANGS fiasco solved, I think Lopunny's had enough of excitement for one Meteor Mash-up.<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

When Cleffy came around, she was staring up right at the face of Darwynette de la Verde. Luckily for our dear Roserade, she had finally succeeded in cleaning up all of the lemon meringue mess.

Cleffy quickly sat up, wondering why the Roserade was here instead of Nile.

"Where's Nile?"

"Oh, he's gone out to find some berries for you. I saw you two when I went into this cave, you splayed out on the ground out cold. He asked me to look after you while he looked for the berries," Darwin said nonchalantly. "He said you'd fainted out of the blue like that. What happened, anyway? Everything was A-OK according to Nile, even throughout your battle with the horde of Swoobat. You only fainted _after_ the battle was over. Care to explain that?"

Cleffy's face went red. "I... uh... I'm afraid of heights," Cleffy whispered as she played with her fingers, feeling pathetic.

"Ah." Darwin gave her an up-and-down look. "I can imagine that."

...

"I hope your Riolu friend returns soon," Darwin said after a while and Nile still hadn't returned. Cleffy noticed she was fidgeting impatiently.

"I'm sorry if I'm t-troubling you," Cleffy apologized. "D-d-do you have somewhere important to be?"

"Important, no." Darwin rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to look for Hypno before anything _significant_ happens."

"Huh? L-look for Hypno? Why? Aren't you supposed to be with Tepig? And wh-what do you mean by 'something significant'...?" Cleffy stopped speaking when she realized that she could be probing too deep for Darwin's comfort. "Ah... I'm sorry. Of c-course it's none of my business."

"Nah, it's OK," Darwin replied with a dismissive wave of her red rose. "Unlike you little kids who apparently participated to solely 'meet new people', I of course had someone I was aiming for. I thought we were actually meant to be." Her tone was sarcastic.

"Ah." Cleffy nodded with understanding. "H-Hypno..."

Then she fiddled with her fingers and looked down at her lap. A red hue overtook her usually pale cheeks. The face of that certain someone she'd hoped to get paired up with appeared in her mind, and he was saying, "Hey, Clef!" in that voice she loved so much. Before she knew it, Cleffy was smiling.

Darwin had been watching Cleffy, so she witnessed the appearance of that sudden smile. Darwin's teenage madame love doctor kicked in. Blushing, finger-fiddling, silly smiling. It all added up to the fact that, Darwin was surprised to conclude, Cleffy was in love.

She turned away so it wouldn't seem as if she'd been watching her intently. Then the Roserade said coolly, nonchalantly, "What's with the huge grin, Cleffy?"

"H-h-huge g-g-grin?" Cleffy was alarmed. She tried to make it disappear from her face. "Wh-what huge g-grin?"

Darwin only laughed. "Dear Arceus, looks like I wasn't the only one who was hoping to get paired up with someone."

"N-no!" Cleffy tried to deny it.

Darwin leaned forward with a meaningful glint in her eyes. "So, who is it, Cleffy?" she asked in a singsong voice. "Who are you in love with, eh? Tell me!"

"N-n-no one!" Cleffy protested, but the second she said that, the silly smile she'd been planning to get rid of returned. Cleffy sighed. It was futile. She'd made the mistake of acting too lovey-dovey, and Darwin was the type of teen girl who never lets any detail about lovey-doveyness slip through her rose petals. She might as well just tell her.

* * *

><p><em>OK, there's no delaying the inevitable. Here's where Lopunny will come clean. Although she's the one who runs the Meteor Mash-up, the one who supposedly knows about matters of love, she is so sorry to admit that she has no idea who Cleffy is in love with. (And the fact that Cleffy is bad at the art of subtlety makes everything worse.)<em>

_Dear reader, you can do better than Lopunny, right? Do you know who Cleffy is in love with? Think back to the time when she first met her friends in the beginning of the Meteor Mash-up..._

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!_


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's Note: Hello, it's me with another update! I've spent some weekend time organizing this fic, and now I can tell you that this fic will be twenty chapters long. This is the fifteenth chapter! Huzzah!_

* * *

><p><strong>~ Meteor Mashed! ~<strong>

That was how it was: Froslass turned out to be really good at dancing to classical music, but turned into an awkward ice statue whenever any kind of faster music played. Gremlin had had to lend a helping claw — literally — by offering to hold her hand and help her dance to the music she had no knowledge of. Then he had walked backwards, guiding her to the center of the stage.

Or what he thought was the center of the stage.

He was walking backwards, so he wouldn't know where he was going. However, Froslass did.

"Uhh... Gremlin... you may want to stop before you—"

Too late!

Gremlin had actually been nearing the edge of the stage instead, and now he had reached the very edge. He lost his footing and fell off the stage and right onto Lopunny! Luckily, he let go of Froslass' hand as he fell, so she didn't get pulled down with him.

Of course, ditzy Lopunny let out a yelp when the Sableye fell on top of her. Even more embarassing, she was still holding her microphone which meant that her yelp got amplified for everyone to hear. For a second, everyone stopped and stared. Even Chandelure stopped the music. Gremlin was still offstage and in a tangled heap with Lopunny, so of course who everyone stared at was Froslass, who was frozen on the stage.

For a second, everything was completely silent except for Gremlin's many apologies to Lopunny. However, Medicham and Jynx were smirking and whispering to each other.

And then Froslass seemed to regain control of things as the room got colder by a few Fahrenheit. She coolly turned to the sniggering Medicham and Jynx and in the coldest voice ever in the history of cold voices said, "Please. Have you never seen anyone fall? It is not anything out of the ordinary." Then she turned her back on them and stretched out a freezing hand to help Gremlin up.

Finally, the Sableye managed to climb back onto the stage after thirty or so more of his apologies. Even when he was firmly back onto the stage, everyone was still staring although Medicham and Jynx had turned their backs on them after Froslass' cold shoulder.

"I meant to do that," Gremlin blurted.

Several chuckles rippled through the room, and the other pairs finally turned away from them as Chandelure restarted the music. Lopunny was exclaiming into the microphone, "Whooooops! I am so embarrassed! That was quite a farce, I hope I didn't yelp too loud, ahahaha~! Welp, all that aside, the music's back on so you can finally resume your dancing, ahahahahaha~!"

Everyone cheered and went back to dancing. However, Froslass' face was red.

Suddenly, there was another tap on Froslass' shoulder. She looked down and met Gremlin's innocent sapphire eyes.

"Froslass, I'm sorry I messed up! I don't think we have any hope of winning now, since I was so lucky I picked _Lopunny_ to fall onto, of all Pokémon. And after all your expert waltzing. I'm so sorry I messed things up for us."

He played with his fingers. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

Froslass didn't answer. Her face was still red.

* * *

><p>"<em>Not to worry, Wish Park FM listeners!" Lopunny laughs it off. "Lopunny's A-OK!"<em>

_...OK, she's lying. How can she be OK?! She's just been humiliated right in front all of the Pokémon participating in the Dance Inferno!_

_And GASP! Everything is also being broadcasted on radio, which means..._

_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Everyone listening to Wish Park FM will also hear that little farce...!_

_EEEEEEEEEEEEE..._

_...Ahem._

_OK, let's ignore Lopunny while she screams her head off and is generally being a drama queen. Let's move on and see what came out of that little incident._

_Oops. Froslass certainly doesn't look happy, does she?_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the Beach Cove, Oshawott and Lizzy were about to play a game with the cards Lizzy had magically pulled out of her fleece.<p>

"OK, so this game is c-called Slap the Mosquito," Lizzy said. "My older sister once taught it to me. First, we divide the shuffled pack of cards into two because there are two players. We're not to look at our pack of cards so we hold them face down. Suppose I go first; I'll take the top card from my pile and place it face up in the middle, at the same time saying, "Two". After that it will be your turn to take a card from the top of your pile, at the same time saying, "Three" and so on."

"OK," Oshawott said, although he was still looking a bit clueless. He and Lizzy were about to play a card game Lizzy had learned from her older sister. She claimed it was a fun game to play when there were only two players. "What's the objective of the game, anyway?"

"If the number on the newest card matches the number that's being mentioned, we need to slap the pile of cards in the middle as fast as we can," Lizzy went on. "For example, I take a card from the top of my pile and place it face up in the middle, saying, "Eight." If the card I'd just placed in the middle has the number eight, we both need to beat the other at slapping the pile first. Whoever slaps the pile slower will collect all the cards in the middle. Whoever manages to place all their cards onto the pile in the middle wins. See, it's a game of reflex."

"Oh, reflex, yes, I get it now." Oshawott nodded. "I'm rather good at _that_."

...

And that was how Oshawott and Lizzy found themselves sitting in front of each other at the beach, each holding a facedown pile of cards.

"I'll start first," Oshawott said. He took the top card from his deck and placed it face up between himself and Lizzy.

"Two."

Lizzy's turn. "Three."

"Four."

_Slap!_

Lizzy laughed. "Oshawott, why did you slap it?" she asked gleefully. "The card is a five of hearts, not four. Well, that means you have to take all three cards in the middle pile."

Oshawott huffed proudly. "It's only three cards," he said. "Besides, I'm warning you, I'm just getting started. Getting my reflexes in check, you see."

Lizzy chuckled. "U-uh, yeah, I see. Well then, I'll start over. Two."

And it started all over again.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny giggles and rolls her eyes. Getting his reflexes in check. Right.<em>

_Well, at least Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy is progressing just beautifully. Nice._

* * *

><p>Over in Haxorus' dojo in the Power Zone, the Power Bash in which Breloom, Braixen, and Hariyama were participating had just started.<p>

First up was Breloom. He used Mach Punch to send Pokémon flying. He pressed the trapdoor button to drop bombs. OK, so there were a few times when he almost punched bombs, but whenever he was about to shoot out those stretchy arms, Braixen would warn him by shouting, "BOMB!"

Finally, it was Braixen's turn. She raised an eyebrow at Breloom when they switched places. "You'd have been bombed many times if it wasn't for me," she said pointedly.

"Forgive me, Lady Braixen," Breloom said with a roll of his eyes.

He couldn't actually imagine Braixen being good at Power Bash. However, he found out soon enough that she was. She dropped bombs into the trapdoor quickly, and when it came to Pokémon, she sent them flying with a powerful Flame Charge, twirling her stick and getting surrounded by crackling fire.

He found out soon enough that Braixen had been right. Appearance deceives.

After a few minutes, it was Breloom's turn again.

And it went on and on.

By the time Axew announced that the time was up, both Breloom and Braixen were tired and breathless. Breloom's arms were sore and Braixen looked rather pale.

"Do ya think... we beat Hariyama?" Breloom asked haltingly.

Braixen shrugged, sticking her stick back into her tail. There was no way she could know. The only thing she _did_ know was that she thought her teamwork with Breloom had been pretty good, and that they'd done a rather nice job.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny agrees with Braixen. She does think that the teamwork and strategy of Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen are good, at least good enough to send those Pokémon flying.<em>

_But are they good enough to send_ Hariyama _flying?_

* * *

><p>Now, let us move to the cave that leads out of the Crag Area, in which Cleffy Clefairy was about to tell Darwin the name of the Pokémon she liked.<p>

...

"OK, I'll t-tell you b-but please do not laugh or b-behave overdramatically," Cleffy said.

"Sure, it's a deal," Darwin said quickly. "So, who is it~?"

"It's..." Cleffy looked down. "It's..."

"Yeah?"

Cleffy still kept her head down when she finally said his name, so Darwin couldn't see the lingering blush and smile. Her voice was only above a whisper when she said, "Roselio."

Darwin was silent for a few seconds.

She was smiling when she turned back to Cleffy.

"Really? What's he like?" she asked, the smile still on her face. "Is he rowdy or is he prissy? I bet he's a Grass-type. What's his star sign? His favorite smoothie? What do you love about him?"

"Wh-what?" Cleffy blinked, totally astonished by Darwin's response. "D-Darwin, y-you of all people should know b-best!"

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on just a second." Darwin held up her roses. She scrutinized Cleffy with narrowed eyes. "Surely you're talking about some _other_ guy in the Pokémon world coincidentally named Roselio, right? Not _the_ Roselio who happens to be my annoying brother?"

Cleffy groaned exasperatedly. "Oh, D-Darwin! Of c-course I was t-talking about y-your brother. H-how many other Roselio are there in the Pokémon world?"

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Darwin stood up as if she was about to pace back and forth deep in thought, but thought better of it as she sat back down. The truth finally hit her like a brick or a thunderbolt and she whipped back to Cleffy in disbelief.

"Whaddya mean, you like _my brother?!"_

The Clefairy blushed. "Is there s-something wrong with th-that?"

The Bouquet Pokémon continued to stare open-mouthed. "But he's obnoxious!"

"No!" Cleffy exclaimed, but after a few moments of thinking even she had to admit, "OK, maybe sometimes. "

"And he's a loudmouth!"

Cleffy thought it over. "Yes."

"And he's a total lazybones because he always goes to sleep the earliest and wakes up the latest!"

"Yes."

"And he's accident-prone!"

"Yes."

"Oh! And he's actually two years younger than Froslass and Staraptor. So he's also two years younger than you, which makes it really weird for you to have a crush on him! Especially when the guy is younger than the girl. At least that's what all my girl friends say."

"No, he's not younger than me at all," Cleffy protested. "I-I'm also two years younger than Froslass and Staraptor and Breloom and Treecko and Lombre and all the others, so I'm the same age as him."

"Really?" Darwin looked doubtful. "That's quite hard to imagine, since you worry as much as _ma grand-mère._ See, try not to worry too much, dear Cleffy, you'll get wrinkles all over your face."

Even after putting in that spontaneous beauty tip, Darwin felt the need to resume her barrage of reasons why it was irrational to have a crush on her brother. "He can never shut up even if his life depended on it."

And even so Cleffy's sole answer stayed, "Yes."

"He can never take anything seriously, either. He's always joking around."

"Yes."

Darwin stared. "And you still _like_ him?"

"O-of c-course I do," Cleffy said in a really small voice.

Darwin tried a different approach. "Let me touch your forehead, Cleffy," she said. "Are you feeling fine? Did you take your medications this morning?"

"Yes, and no!" Cleffy burst out. "I'm fine, Darwin. I'm t-t-totally fine. Yes, I d-do know he has many weaknesses - we all have our own weaknesses, right? - but that's exactly the way I like him." She blushed even harder and looked down. "B-besides, all those weaknesses are what make Roselio _Roselio_, right?"

Darwin was speechless for a moment. Then she seemed to look at Cleffy in a new light - if you paid close attention, you might even catch some of her awe.

"Finally, one of you young ones who actually talks sense." She leaned towards the younger Pokémon. "We're on the same wavelength, then," she said with satisfaction. "I have a feeling we can get along pretty fine. Pretty fine, indeed."

* * *

><p><em>Ooohhhh! So Cleffy likes the red-bowtie-wearing, smoothie-liking Roselia with the French last name.<em>

_Lopunny frowns. Cleffy and Roselio are so different. Cleffy is shy and unconfident and feels as if the whole world is out to get her, whereas Roselio is happy-go-lucky; an obnoxious loudmouth who practically wants to_ befriend _the whole world._

_Even worse, although Cleffy is hopelessly lovestruck, he doesn't seem to notice a thing._

_Suddenly it seems as if a new love story has just started in the middle of the Meteor Mash-up! I wonder if this will be a happy ending? And what about Darwin herself?_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!_


	16. Chapter 16

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

When Braixen and Breloom returned into the dojo for the announcement, Hariyama sneered in their direction. Unlike Braixen and Breloom, he didn't look tired at all. Even worse, he looked quite confident. So did his equally-tough-looking teammate, a Hitmonchan.

"How was it?" Hariyama smirked.

Braixen didn't say anything but stuck her nose in the air.

Finally, Axew went up onto a small platform with a microphone. "Hello everyone, and thank you for participating in the Power Bash today!" he said. "I'm sure everyone did their best out there, but here's what you've been waiting for: the winner announcement!"

"Cross your fingers," Braixen mumbled. "I'll never hear the end of it if Hariyama wins."

"I don't have any fingers," Breloom reminded her.

Axew went on, "In third place, we have Meditite and Mienfoo, whose final score is 20.000 points!"

There were cheering, although most of the bigger Pokémon looked surprised and sullen that they'd been beaten by the two small Fighting-types.

"In second place we have... Hariyama and Hitmonchan! Their final score is 28.000! Wow! That's quite impressive!"

Hariyama only nodded. However, Braixen noticed that he didn't look too thrilled. Maybe getting into second place wasn't satisfactory enough for the reigning champion.

"Finally, we've come to the first place..." Axew looked down at the paper he was holding. "Oooh, this is even more impressive! Our first place winners managed to score 33.000 points! What's surprising is that these two are Power Bash first-timers! Let's give it up for Braixen and Breloom!"

The first time she heard it, Braixen wouldn't believe her ears. However, the full weight of Axew's announcement sank in after Breloom suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook her excitedly. "Ya hear that?! We won first place! WHOO-YEAH!"

"We won," Braixen gasped naively. "Dear Arceus, I can't believe we actually won."

...That was when she thought she felt her fur at the back of her neck stand up, as if someone was staring at her back. She turned and caught Hariyama staring daggers at them with an envious look on his face. That was what compelled her to get her cool act back up.

"Uh, I meant, it's only _natural_ that we won, isn't it, Breloom." She stuck up her nose and twirled her stick. "Come on, let's go get the prize we so _rightfully_ deserve."

Then the Fire-type, the only girl in the dojo, strutted over to Axew's platform as if she owned the place, the stick still tracing arcs of fire in the air as Breloom followed close behind.

"Girls," he muttered with a smile.

* * *

><p><em>Oh, yaaaay! Lopunny feels like rushing into Haxorus' dojo with her pom-poms and breaking into a cheerleading routine, then mashing Breloom and Braixen together. Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen actually beat reigning champion Hariyama!<em>

_Isn't it amazing what a little teamwork can do?_

* * *

><p>...<p>

After quite a while of playing, there was a point when both Lizzy's and Oshawott's decks were really thin and the middle pile was really thick. None of them could afford to "mess up their reflexes" now because if they did, they were going to have to be collecting a lot of cards which would definitely put them at a considerable distance from the already-within-reach victory.

"Queen," Oshawott said, placing the next card face up on the pile. It was a queen of spades.

_Slap! Slap!_

Lizzy's hand slapped the pile first. Only a few seconds slack, Oshawott's hand landed on top of the Flaaffy's.

"No!" Oshawott groaned in defeat.

"Ha!" Lizzy was gleeful. "I w-win! All these c-cards are for you!"

"No!" Oshawott said again. "Let's start over. I wasn't ready."

"No way," Lizzy giggled. "And that was the whole point, Oshawott. If you don't get ready, you lose."

Oshawott grumbled under his breath, but then gave in. "Ugh, fine. Maybe it was my fault that I wasn't ready. But it could also have been because you've had much more practice at this than I have, since your sister was the one who invented the game and whatnot."

"Ha-ha, very funny." Lizzy rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's continue. I'm just a stone's throw away from victory since you've just collected a whole fresh pile of new cards."

"All right, fine, but I'm warning you that I may still have a shot at this," Oshawott said proudly. "You start from two."

"Uh-uh." Lizzy wavered.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.

"What are you waiting for?" Oshawott rolled his eyes. "Do you want to continue playing or not?"

"W-well, I'm waiting for you to remove your hand from m-mine, that's what."

Lizzy's awkward demeanor was back, but this time she had a good reason to be that way. The sea otter hadn't taken his hand away since it had landed on top of hers when they'd hurriedly slapped the pile.

"Oh, oops." Oshawott tried to act coolly, but if you were there, you would have been able to see that it wasn't really working. "Oops, um, sorry. I was kinda... _distracted,_ that's all."

He cleared his throat and took his hand away. Lizzy thought her hand was tingling where Oshawott had touched it...

But of course she may be imagining things.

"Umm, OK, I'll start again," she chose to say, accompanied by a nervous laugh.

"Two."

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny sneers. Aww, Oshawott! Were you really just "distracted" or did you do that on purpose, hmm~?<em>

_Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy is just. So. ADORABLE! Squeeeeeeee~!_

_Ahem. Let's move on to another pairing._

* * *

><p>After a few moments, Nile finally returned with a whole handful of berries. Darwin and Cleffy were still talking about crushes and whatnot, and they immediately went quiet as Nile walked over.<p>

"I've got the berries," he announced. He smiled at Cleffy. "Glad to see that you're up, Cleffy. You went out cold really suddenly back there." Turning to the Roserade, he said, "And thank you for watching over her, Darwin."

"_Oui oui,_ don't mention it," Darwin said, standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have someone to look for."

Nile didn't know, but of course Cleffy knew exactly who that someone was.

"Good luck, Darwin," Cleffy called after her.

The Roserade had begun to walk away, but she turned back to raise her red rose and wave at Cleffy and Nile.

"Good luck to you too, Cleffy Clefairy," she called back. Although she was far away, Cleffy saw that she was wearing a smirk.

»̶✽«̶

Although Cleffy insisted that she was fine, Nile still had her eat some of the Oran berries he came back with. As she ate, her face was red and she could only look down at the ground. It was silent, which was probably none short of miraculous since the Swoobat seemed to have moved to another part of the cave.

Finally, Cleffy was the one who broke that silence.

"I'm s-sorry," she whispered, fingering the leftover berry leaves.

Nile finally snapped to attention. "Huh? What for?"

"For being such a b-burden," she went on. "I'm sorry, I claim to be a rescue team Pokémon when in truth I c-can't even d-defend myself that well. Now I've gone and t-troubled you to go and get me these berries when we could be doing something less... useless and... ugh, I'm sorry f-for ruining your Meteor Mash-up experience and all...!"

"Ruining my Meteor Mash-up experience...?" Nile's eyes were wide with surprise. "No, you're not doing anything of the sort, Cleffy! You don't have anything to worry about. It's OK to feel nervous," he said. "I have to admit that I felt nervous when I first joined this thing."

"Oh?" Cleffy looked up. "But you d-don't act nervous at all!"

"Well, yeah." Nile smiled. "Do you often hear people say 'devil-may-care'?"

"Uhh, yeah. I've heard some people say it," Cleffy said thoughtfully. "Wh-what's that got to do with anything?"

"That's how I act when I meet new people," he replied. "Devil may care, brush problems away like pesky flies. I try not to worry about what other people think of me. You know, this may sound like the most mainstream phrase ever, but just be yourself... or something."

He sat down next to her. "You see, you act more naturally when you're being yourself, when you stop worrying about what kind of person other people want you to be. When they don't like you, that's their problem, not yours. That's because the only one good at being you is, well... you, and no one should change you into someone you really aren't. Because, Cleffy-"

He turned to her. "There really isn't anything wrong about you, you know. There really isn't anything you have to change about yourself. What you probably should do is feel a bit more... confident... about yourself. Oops. I didn't mean to school you or say anything cliché or anything, and maybe my opinion is a bit biased because I actually like shy girls..."

The next second, he seemed to realize what he'd just said and his face turned an interesting shade of red. However, this time Cleffy had taken over the role of Roselio – miraculously totally oblivious to Nile's current predicament.

At that, Cleffy's mind went back to before she met Nile. She had been worrying about what would happen if Nile turned out to not like her. She had been a nervous wreck. Even after Lombre had told her to "hold on loosely but don't let go", she still couldn't stop worrying. Even after seeing that Nile was a carefree Pokémon, not even half as demanding as she thought he would be.

Yes, Cleffy Clefairy ought to think higher of herself for once. It wasn't her job to tailor herself specifically to suit other people's needs, so that they would like and accept her. Her job was simply to be the best version of herself. Whether people liked her or not in the end was another matter altogether, and it was not her problem to stress about.

She could hear Lombre saying, _hold on loosely, but don't let go._

This time, Nile chimed in, _devil may care, Cleffy. If they don't like you, that's their problem. No one's better at being you than you. Brush them away like pesky flies._

_Nile._

He was a Fighting-type, yet he was not all brawn and no brain. He was obviously a deep thinker, and that somehow motivated Cleffy to try her best.

Cleffy stood up. "U-uh, I think I'm OK to continue walking now."

"OK." Nile stood up also. He looked around. "Want to walk behind me? We haven't seen any Swoobat again, but they may be back." He clenched his fists, Fighting-type style.

Unconsciously, Cleffy clenched her own fists also.

"No, thank you, I'm sure I'll be a-all right," she said. "Wh-when any Swoobat comes, I'll Mega Punch them for sure."

Nile laughed, but he was actually pretty surprised at Cleffy's sudden change in attitude. "Well... maybe not Mega Punch, either; that would have been too... sadistic?"

Cleffy laughed pleasantly, then looked deep in thought. "OK, maybe not Mega Punch," she agreed. "M-maybe a simple Swift would do just f-fine."

* * *

><p><em>The Meteor Mash-up isn't just about meeting new people with a lot of different points of view.<em>

_In fact, perhaps the most important part of it is learning something new about yourself._

_Right?_

* * *

><p>...<p>

The blue character with the cotton wings who had suddenly and out-of-the-blue come to Tepig's bench introduced herself as Altaria Cottonspores.

"Oh," Tepig said, shaking her wing. It felt like soft cotton candy. "Nice to meet you, Altaria."

Another silence.

"I'm Darwin's best friend but... I unfortunately don't know where she is, either," Altaria said quietly, out of the blue. She sounded almost apologetic.

"Huh, that's what we both have in common, then," Tepig said. "She did leave without giving me any hint as to where she's going."

"...I'm sorry." This time Altaria expressed her pity forwardly. "Someone told me what happened and that things aren't really going so well between you and Darwin. That's how she is, I'm afraid; she can be really stubborn whenever she has an idea in her head. She's like a charging Tauros. You can't stop her."

"I understand, and I'm OK," Tepig said with a small smile. "I can understand why she did that. I think having loved ones close to us is really important, almost as important as honesty. I think she was only doing the right thing. When you have someone you hold dear, you'd want them to be close to you."

Altaria smiled at him. "Wow, Tepig, you're really understanding, and that's really something," she said, impressed. "Sometimes her decisions and behavior even piss _me_ off."

Tepig laughed, brushing the compliment away. "Oh, it's nothing," he said.

"So, you're just going to sit here and wait for her?"

"Well, yeah," Tepig sighed helplessly. "I don't think I can do anything else. If I go somewhere else, Darwin won't find me when she finally comes back."

"...And you're still hoping that she'd return."

"Not really." Tepig shrugged. "In fact, I'm kind of the opposite. I hope she gets to meet this Hypno guy. Seems like she's pretty crazy about him. Still, it's a good idea to be on the safe side and just stay here."

"Tepig, you're too kind-hearted!"

"No, I'm not," Tepig said. "Besides, waiting here wouldn't be as boring, since I've at least got someone I can chat with!" He smiled at her. "Thank you for giving me some company, Altaria. I really appreciate it."

"Of course!" Altaria exclaimed. "Please, it's nothing. It's my pleasure to stay with you, since you're one of those few Pokémon who actually understand the important things. You're different from most Pokémon. I like that."

Tepig smiled at her.

And this time, probably since the start of the Meteor Mash-up, the smile was for real.

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny the Spy feels huge satisfaction when she finally sees Tepig and Altaria doing things Froslass and Gremlin have been doing: chatting and cracking a few jokes.<em>

_Finally. Tepig Pokabu gets the real taste of the Meteor Mash-up. It's about time, too. Lopunny agrees with Froslass that he really didn't deserve to be ditched. It's a good thing she bumped into Darwin's friend Altaria!_

_And as for Altaria herself..._

_You did a great job, girl! Lopunny thought, and she can't help but smile._

_..._

_It's almost dusk, so all pairings had better get their bearings! What will happen as the sun goes down? Will Darwin get a chance to be with Hypno? What about Cleffy and Roselio? What about the other pairings, scattered across Wish Park and PokéPark?_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM~! _


	17. Chapter 17

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

...

After the FANGS had disappeared into the distance, Storm and Roselio sank down, panting.

"That was too close," Storm wheezed. She felt really sore because of all those Foul Plays.

Roselio nodded. After a while, he turned to her. "You OK?"

Storm glared. "Of course I'm OK!" she snapped. Then she seemed to remember how he'd bailed her out when Krokorok attacked her, and she went silent, turning away.

For a while they did nothing but sit there listening to their ragged breathing until at one point Roselio stood and was about to offer Storm a hand when someone suddenly grabbed his shoulders from behind.

"GYAAAAH!" he cried, jumping and quickly turning around to meet Darwin's annoyed face.

"Chill out, _mon frére,_" she snarled. "Dear Arceus, you really are jumpy-"

She tailed off when she saw the state Storm and Roselio were in.

"Wait, what the heck have you been up to?"

Then her eyes lit up with understanding as she turned to Storm. "Oh... I suppose that's because you kicked his butt already?"

"_Non,_ our battle didn't even take that long," Roselio said dismissively. "We've been in a battle with some thugs instead."

The Roserade stared at them with a horrified expression on her face, then shook her head as she decided to just ignore that. Instead, she changed the subject and got down to business.

"Have you seen Hypno and Snivy?"

"Oh, them." Her brother shrugged. "_Oui._"

Darwin zeroed in on him like a hawk on a rabbit and grabbed his shoulders, rattling off a barrage of questions in French. "Where are they now? Where did you see them? What were they doing?"

"They were there when Storm and I were walking through the Arbor Area before we came here," Roselio said. "Snivy said that she was going to show Hypno some sights."

Darwin glared. "They weren't there when I passed through the Arbor Area," she said with a doubtful squint. "Are you sure? When exactly was that?"

"_Oui,_ I'm sure," Roselio answered, only to get his shoulders violently shaken again.

"Why didn't I see them, then? Did you hear what they were talking about? Did Hypno give Snivy any compliments? Was there any hand-holding? What was their eye contact like?"

Roselio looked blank. "What's eye contact got to do with anything?"

"Gaaaah," Darwin cried in frustration, shaking his shoulders again.

Luckily for Roselio, Storm swooped in to his rescue. "Give him a break. Fancy asking about subtle things to someone from Mars." She rolled her eyes. "However, he wasn't lying - we did see them in the Arbor Area and overheard that they'd be there for quite some time. And as for why you didn't see them, you said yourself that you _passed through_ the Arbor Area. If Snivy was going to show Hypno some sights, she'd surely take Hypno to spots you won't normally come across when you just 'pass through'."

Darwin huffed but didn't deny the fact that Storm could be right.

"ANYWAY," she said loudly. "As I was saying, what were they doing when you saw them?" She narrowed her eyes at Storm.

"Chatting, of course," Storm said nonchalantly.

"Did you hear what they were talking about?"

Storm shrugged. "Royalty stuff, Snivy's adventures, and whatnot."

"Did Hypno give Snivy any compliments?"

Storm shook her head. "Nope."

"Any hand-holding?"

"Nope."

"How about eye contact?"

"Nothing serious," Storm replied. "Chemistry, none."

Darwin looked pleased. "Good. Then there's still time." She looked back at the entrance to the Arbor Area. "Then I guess I'll be going now." She turned back to Roselio and Storm. "See you two later."

She smirked specifically at Storm. "Go for it," she said. "When you have another battle, kick his butt for me, will ya? Hit 'em as hard as you want. I don't mind."

With that, she turned and walked away in the direction of the Arbor Area.

Roselio glared at her vanishing back. "Hey, you're not exactly helping...!"

But Darwin only waved her red rose.

* * *

><p><em>Looks like Darwin is getting closer to catching up with Hypno, at last! She only needs to return to the Arbor Area and look for him where Snivy's showing him some sights. I wonder what will happen if she does meet him?<em>

_Anyway, Lopunny is glad Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm is finally calming down after the FANGS fiasco. Who knows, maybe they'll even have fluffy, Lopunny-back-to-fangirling-again moments like some other pairings? At least something that doesn't involve kicking each other's butts. (Lopunny glares at Darwin.)_

* * *

><p>Gremlin Ombre the Sableye had angered Froslass Yukimenoko.<p>

He had made the stupid mistake of not watching where he was going, and had ended up falling off their Dance Inferno stage right onto Lopunny. Froslass hadn't been pulled down with him, but she still became the center of attention of those still on the stage.

When Gremlin Ombre had finally climbed back onto the stage, he'd known that he'd really done it.

Froslass Yukimenoko's face had been a brilliant shade of red.

...But that was before she burst out laughing!

"You are right about one thing," she said between giggles as Gremlin stared in surprise, "we have no hope of winning now. But who cares? Let Medicham and Jynx have their stupid trophy, I did not even want it in the first place – you do know that I am a Pokémon of science and not of dance."

She grinned. "In fact, I thought your display was actually pretty funny, Gremmy! I felt really amused! My favorite part was when Lopunny's outcry got amplifed. It was so loud that even Chandelure was surprised."

Gremlin zeroed in on something Froslass said.

_Gremmy?_

He suddenly realized that the Ice-type had given him a nickname. The elegant Froslass Yukimenoko had actually deemed himself close enough for a nickname. The very idea enthralled him – he took that as a sign that Froslass had finally considered him a friend and not a little goofball she just had to spend time with. He took that as a sign that Froslass was going to get less uptight with him from now on. He certainly hoped that was the case.

Gremlin had to laugh, too. "Yeah, and I fell right on her top hat and accidentally pushed it down over her face and half the time she was trying to pull it off since it seemed to be stuck fast. I'm glad she didn't suffocate in it or anything. But my favorite part had to be when you gave Medicham and Jynx a cold shoulder! It was high time, too, they were really beginning to get onto my nerves. They think they're so good." He pouted.

Froslass laughed again at what a ridiculous goofball he was being. "Actually, I do think they _are_ pretty good. They are probably going to win, but like I said earlier, I do not care about winning or losing." She shook her head. "Since the music is still playing, how about we enjoy the rest of our stage time?" She looked meaningfully at Gremlin. "I do recall you saying that you have knowledge on how to dance to this specific kind of music."

Gremlin tilted his head, surprised that she still wanted to stay. "I thought you'd suggest getting out of here after my embarrassing 'display', but if that's what you want, OK!" He grinned. "Like what you said, I _do_ 'have knowledge'!"

He offered her his hand and she took it, and before they knew it, they were dancing to "this specific kind of music", as Froslass had put it. Maybe their dancing even almost rivaled Medicham's and Jynx's.

Froslass had lots of knowledge, but Gremlin had knowledge, too. They were knowledge of different things, but for now, their differences didn't seem to matter at all.

»̶✽«̶

The Dance Inferno was over, and Lopunny was back onstage with her slightly disheveled-looking top hat. She was about to announce the winners.

"...And now we're moving on to the first winners!" she exclaimed once Charmander and Bulbasaur had gotten off the stage after claiming their prize as the second-place winners.

"Medicham and Jynx!" Gremlin lip-synced along with Lopunny as cheers erupted in the tent. He grumbled. "You're right, they _are_ good. I have nothing against them winning, Froslass, but it's just that they're so annoy—"

He broke off when he heard Lopunny's amplified yelp. There seemed to be a commotion up on the stage . He turned back just in time to see Medicham and Jynx topple over onto the rabbit, ruining her top hat even more.

"What the...? Did they slip?" Gremlin blinked in surprise, but Froslass didn't say anything.

"Yep, looks like they slipped," said Dustox, who was sitting beside him. "It was weird – Medicham was flailing his arms about as if he was walking on ice."

That gave Gremlin an idea and he turned sharply to face Froslass. He was actually trying to suppress laughter as he blurted out, "Froslass, you didn't...!"

"Did not what?" the Ice-type said calmly. "I did not have anything to do with it."

But then she grinned a merciless smile.

"Or did I...?"

* * *

><p><em>Lopunny glared as she pulled off her destroyed hat. So it was Froslass Yukimenoko's doing, eh? No wonder Medicham and Jynx fell out of the blue like that. She hadn't expected this. I thought better of you, Froslass Yukimenoko! I thought you said you were a Pokémon of science. Not of pranks.<em>

_Ahem. At least the Ice-type wasn't angry at Gremlin. It's almost the end of the Meteor Mash-up soon; we can't afford to have any more problematic pairings._

_Lopunny quickly flits from annoyance to being the fangirl she usually is, because she has just witnessed the first. Meteor. Mash-up. NICKNAME-GIVING!_

_Squeeeeeeeee~!_

* * *

><p>...<p>

"...And that's the entrance to the Arcane Area."

Snivy Tsutarja, princess of the Arbor Area, was pointing a hand in the direction of a gap in the cliffs surrounding the Arbor Area of PokéPark, far away in the distance. She and Hypno were perched on the roof of the windmill in the Windmill Way. She was showing Hypno some sights.

Hypno squinted. "Looks like a huge flower plain."

"It is." Snivy nodded. "Some argue that it's the most beautiful area in PokéPark. Of course, some others disagree. My mother thinks Verdant Court is the most beautiful. Area Keeper Samurott thinks it's the Beach Cove. Area Keeper Emboar thinks the Battle Tournament arena in the Crag Area is the best. Conkeldurr thinks it's the Train Depot. Reuniclus thinks it's his lab. You get what I mean."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"Right." Snivy smirked.

Hypno was staring into the distance when he suddenly frowned. "Look," he told Snivy, pointing at the entrance to the Windmill Way.

Snivy turned and saw a Roserade just entering the Windmill Way.

It was Darwin.

Again.

The Roserade had been there before – she had been walking through the Windmill Way as if she had been in a hurry. However, now she seemed to be looking for something, as she was looking behind bushes and peeking into every nook and cranny.

That was when she spotted the windmill, and it gave her an idea. Her gaze traveled to its roof and finally landed on Hypno and Snivy.

"There you are!" she gasped, her face breaking into an alarmingly wide smile. "I've been looking for you, Hypno!"

Hypno didn't look too happy to see her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, Tepig's doing... something... _else,_ so I figured I'd find you instead." The Roserade grinned up at him. "Hey, mind if I join you up there? How do you get up there, anyway?"

"You climb." Hypno was not amused.

Darwin didn't seem to notice that Hypno wasn't too thrilled to see her, so she went over to the windmill and began to climb up gingerly.

However, just as Darwin was about to arrive on the roof on which Hypno and Snivy were sitting, Hypno changed his mind and said, "Hey, actually, it's almost the end of the Meteor Mash-up. How about if we start walking to the Dance Zone now?"

Darwin already had one rose on the roof, so of course she was surprised when Hypno changed his mind and jumped to the ground instead, followed by Snivy. She abandoned her climbing endeavors and jumped back down. When she reached the ground, Hypno was already walking away with Snivy.

Still, Darwin didn't give up. She ran after them, finally catching up with them.

"Sooo, what have you two been up to?" she asked breathlessly.

"Nothing," Hypno said shortly, so Snivy filled her in, "I've been showing him some popular Arbor Area sights from on top of the windmill."

"Oh, so you've been up there for a while?"

"Yep," Hypno said coldly. "We even saw you the first time you came here, didn't we, Snivy?"

"Uh-uh." Snivy nodded.

Darwin was still smiling, but it was now frozen on her face.

_Hypno saw me... _

_...but he didn't even say hi._

For the first time, Darwynette de la Verde wasn't sure what she thought of Hypno.

She was about to say something when Hypno turned to Snivy and said, "Anyway, you were going to tell me about your battle with Darkrai," as if he chose to completely ignore Darwin's presence.

"Oh yeah, that." Snivy grinned, and then launched into the epic story of how she and her friends had beaten the legendary Pokémon of darkness.

Before she knew it, Darwin was left trailing behind them like a shadow with a frozen smile on her face.

* * *

><p><em>Ouch.<em>

_Lopunny grimaced. Looks as if Hypno's gone down the ranks from being Darwin's crush to being a heartbreaker._

_Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy is going... meh. The whole time she has been watching them, they have done nothing but talk and do hypnotism tricks. Lopunny pouts. They never even made her fangirl – not even once._

_As for Darwin, it's true that she has been acting like a pain in the neck, but now Lopunny can't help but feel sorry for her..._

_..._

_It's almost the end of the Meteor Mash-up. What will happen as the sun sinks even lower?_

_Stay tuned on Wish Park FM!_


	18. Chapter 18

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

...

Cleffy and Nile finally arrived in the Arbor Area, where they continued to be for the rest of the day. Cleffy Clefairy spent the rest of the day being herself and practicing devil-may-care and holding on loosely while at the same time not letting go and brushing away the pesky flies.

And she had to admit that being free of any worries for once felt absolutely _brilliant._

She laughed freely, she expressed herself. She was trying hard to come out of the protective shell she'd been hiding for so long, and at the end of the day, she had to admit that she did enjoy the Meteor Mash-up after all.

When she and Nile were about to return to the Dance Zone nearing dusk, she felt the need to thank the Riolu for the useful insight he had given her.

"Hey, don't mention it," he said in his signature carefree style. "It was nice meeting you, Cleffy. You're quiet and you're a better listener than speaker, but you're really something. That Mega Punch earlier was still the most epic punching move I've ever seen."

"H-hey, it was Treecko's idea," Cleffy brushed it off. "A-and I'm glad to have been paired up with you. You m-made me realize how useless all my worrying has been." She blushed. "And I'm still sorry about my s-silly fainting back in that cave..."

"It's really all right," Nile said breezily with a smile, leading Cleffy to the poster portal to go back to Wish Park as the sun began to set over the windmill in the Windmill Way.

"Like I said, I brush those pesky flies away."

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

The next time Tepig saw Darwin again was when the sun was about to set, signaling the end of the Meteor Mash-up. She was walking back to the Dance Zone with Hypno and Snivy.

He smiled when he saw her approach near.

"Hello!" he greeted her Roselio-style.

"Hello," Darwin said. "I'm sorry for being gone for so long."

"That's OK," Tepig said brightly, although she technically left for the whole duration of the rest of the Meteor Mash-up. He turned to where Hypno was still chatting with Snivy. "I see you caught up to him! Good for you, Darwin!"

However, Darwin turned and stared daggers at the two who were still talking animatedly.

"Yeah, and fat lot of good it did to me," she grumbled under her breath. "I almost never had any chance to talk to him. He was still really preoccupied with Snivy's stories about royalty and all the awesome adventures she's had. He saw me, but he didn't even say hi. Even worse, I met a lot of the others on the way and they all seemed to be having loads of fun. How very _lucky._" Her voice was positively dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Tepig said, surprised when he realized that Darwin had been having less fun than he was. He'd originally thought that by going off and looking for Hypno, she was certainly having a way better time. "I was pretty much all right also; your friend Altaria came and we talked about a lot of different things."

"Oh, you did?"Darwin turned to her friend, but her face gave nothing away.

"Yup, I did," Altaria replied. She turned to the fire pig with a smile. "Thank you for your time, Tepig! I really enjoyed our chat."

"Oh, don't mention it," Tepig said pleasantly. "I had a lot of fun, too. It was really nice meeting you, Altaria!"

Darwin could only look back and forth between her best friend and the timid fire pig. "Oh, I'm glad at least _someone's_ been having fun," she drawled sarcastically.

Tepig and Altaria didn't even seem to hear her since they were back to talking among themselves, just like Hypno and Snivy.

Darwin huffed and turned away.

_Altaria is about the only person who doesn't participate in the Meteor Mash-up but ends up with a new special friend, _she thought._ And I was right about this whole Meteor Mash-up concept right from the beginning._

She glanced at where Hypno and Snivy were standing again.

Hypno...

And Snivy.

_Grr._

Darwin clenched her teeth in annoyance.

_This isn't how real love works!_

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin – Fin?<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

Oshawott and Lizzy finally stopped playing a bit before dusk, after Lizzy had won almost every game (Oshawott won. Once).

Oshawott stood up, red-faced, as Lizzy tidied up the cards.

"OK, I wasn't up to my optimum performance because I haven't had any practice," he claimed. "And even after the Meteor Mash-up is over, you can expect me to suddenly appear at your house for a rematch!"

He paused. "Err, after you give me your address, of course."

Lizzy laughed. She reached into her fleece again and took out the piece of paper with the Unown letters on it. On the back was her address.

"OK!" Oshawott took the paper and grinned at her. "I'll be sure to practice and surprise you with my awesome card-playing skills!"

Lizzy smiled awkwardly. "U-um, I'll be looking forward to that," she said. "Y-yeah, you'll be welcome anytime, Oshawott. We'll play Slap the Mosquito again."

"Yeah." The Sea Otter Pokémon grinned enthusiastically as the sun sank even lower.

"And I'm gonna win!"

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

An hour before sunset and the end of the Meteor Mash-up, Rem and Lombre decided to cease fire. There were no winners and losers - they'd had enough fun already trying to hit the other with sweet treats.

However, now they didn't look so sure. Cofagrigus' room looked as if a meteorite covered with cake and icing had hit it. It was going to take a really long time to clean everything up to the way they were before.

"Aww man, Cofagrigus' gonna kill us," said Rem.

However, Lombre had just gotten an idea. "Not if I can help it," she said.

Suddenly, there was a huge wave inside the room that washed all the cake away. Even Rem and Lombre got free "showers". After the wave had died down, all the cake had been washed away.

"Surf," Lombre explained brightly. "Instant clean-up."

"Yeah, but now everything's all wet," Rem complained, fingering his wet and limp cotton that stuck to his arms.

However, the next moment, he also got an idea.

"Watch this," he said, summoning several twisters to blow everything dry.

"Hurricane aka. instant dryer," he said smugly to Lombre, proud not only because he'd managed to dry Cofagrigus' room, but also because his cotton was back to being its bouncy, puffy state.

After tidying up the furniture, they were amazed to see that Cofagrigus' room looked as if nothing had ever happened in it - especially not any food fights involving sticky cake.

"_¡Ay caramba!_ We did it!" Lombre exclaimed happily. "We're not gonna get killed after all!"

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound that surprised both of them.

Lombre looked sheepish. "_Lo siento,_ that was my stomach," she said apologetically. "Huh, all this food-fighting has made me hungry again."

Rem didn't answer. Lombre looked around with a start and realized that Rem was no longer standing next to her.

"Here."

She was surprised by Rem's voice coming from behind her. She whirled and saw the Whimsicott standing behind her holding a box.

"I saved some of this," he said gruffly, not meeting her eyes.

Lombre accepted the box and opened it. Inside were several pistachio cupcakes; her favorite flavor.

"Oh! These are my favorites!" She smiled, but for once it wasn't annoying nor could it be called a smirk. "_Muchas gracias!_"

"I actually set them aside so that no one would use them in the food fight," Rem explained quickly, turning away. "They're a pain to clean from cotton." He fingered his now-clean cotton.

"Of course." Lombre grinned and took out one of the cupcakes, biting into it eagerly. "These are heavenly. Don't you want any?"

"Nah." Rem shook his head. "They're for you."

Lombre tilted her head meaningfully. "Oh, so you _were_ going to give this to me? I thought you said you set them aside so no one would use them in the food fight."

Realizing the contradiction in the things he'd said, Rem quickly turned and began to walk to the door. Lombre couldn't see it, but he was blushing all the way.

"Ah, what the heck, let's just go already."

He kept walking and all in all acting as if he was about to leave her behind.

However, Lombre would see for the second time that he could say something or imply that something was the case and then act completely differently.

Sure enough, it turned out that he was waiting for her outside at the door.

As for the Whimsicott himself, he'd actually began to think that participating in the Meteor Mash-up wasn't too bad an idea after all, and Lombre not too annoying a girl after all, either. In fact, she had been really fun to spend time with - to be rivals with. Lombre wasn't your typical girl, but she had her own charms.

But he wasn't about to tell that to neither Lombre nor the friend who'd signed him up, of course.

And then they walked, together, back to the Dance Zone, and ultimately the end of the Meteor Mash-up.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

Staraptor and Tori had gone flying and landed in the various Wish Park zones. They'd seen Treecko and Amelia in the Cake Zone and glimpsed Breloom and Braixen in the Power Zone. They had lunch, they had tea.

However, Tori had to admit that she was happiest when Staraptor performed aerial acrobatics. She never knew that flying could make her feel so free. She loved feeling the breeze in her hair. Miraculously, her glasses didn't fall off.

Staraptor and Tori were flying over Darkrai's majestic Wish Castle when the sky began to turn orange and pink. The Gardevoir knew what this meant: the Meteor Mash-up was going to be over soon.

Staraptor seemed to read her mind although she was supposed to be the psychic here.

"Time to get back to the Dance Zone," he muttered. He sounded as reluctant as she was.

Tori sighed. "What a shame. I'm beginning to really like flying."

Staraptor chuckled. "See, everyone loves flying. Eventually."

"No, but I'm being serious here," Tori protested. "You're the first Pokemon to make me feel like I'm at the top of the world. For much of my life, I've been stuck down there with the theories on aerodynamics. This is the first time anyone has ever made me realize what it's like to see those theories in action."

"...Huh. That was really scientific, but I'm glad to know that I was able to make you happy," Staraptor said.

"You didn't only make me happy, you made me see things from another perspective," Tori replied. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Thank you, Staraptor. You just gave me knowledge today, and that's one of the most precious things someone can have."

The Flying-type blushed. "Uh, you're welcome," he grunted. "Since we're almost going to have to land soon, why don't we do one last aerial trick, huh?"

"Loop the loop!" exclaimed Tori excitedly. It had gone from her most feared aerial trick into her favorite one. A lot of physics theories can be applied to that, that's why, she'd said.

Staraptor laughed. "OK then, hang on tight."

When he performed the final loop the loop for the day, Tori was ready.

However, her glasses weren't quite.

Suddenly, Tori felt her glasses slipping, and the next second it was falling off.

"My glasses!" cried Tori.

As he had been with Tori's manuscript pages, Staraptor was ready. He did a sudden drop (which this time Tori wasn't quite ready for since her stomach did a sudden drop also), and was fortunately able to catch the glasses before they hit the ground (and shattered, obviously).

"Got it!" he exclaimed.

"Whew!" Tori sighed in relief and laughed. "That's the second time we had... "incidents"... while we were flying today."

"Yep, but we managed to prevent anything disastrous from happening both times."

"Now I've got to thank you for showing me the laws of gravity in action," Tori chuckled pleasantly.

"And don't forget the laws of potential energy as well," Staraptor added, who had heard Froslass talk about it (many times) before.

Tori laughed. "Yeah, you're absolutely right! You're a fast learner, Staraptor."

And with that, they flew in the direction of the setting sun and the Dance Zone, and ultimately the conclusion of the Meteor Mash-up.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori – Fin<em>


	19. Chapter 19

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

...

It was nearly time for sunset. Roselio and Storm were getting ready to head back for the Dance Zone.

"I wonder how Darwin's doing," Roselio wondered. He was glad he and Storm had no more battles so she didn't kick his butt.

Storm shrugged and said nothing. Instead, she changed the subject.

"Roselio."

"Huh?" he turned to her with a smile. "What is it?"

"About earlier." She cleared her throat. "I... I haven't thanked you yet."

"Thanked me?" Roselio looked confused. "What for?"

"You _know._" Storm was exasperated. She was awkward enough, but of course Roselio needed her to be more awkward than she already was by explaining further.

Storm stared at him, trying to find signs that he was only pretending not to know, but found none. He looked totally blank.

Storm sighed and gave in. "I meant, thanks for taking the hit back then," she explained quickly. "You... OK, saved me from fainting. Yeah. That was some kinda brave, OK?"

Roselio laughed and brushed it off lightly. "Oh, come on," he said. "I kind of got us into that mess, so I had to do something to make up for it, _non?_"

Storm's smirk came back. "Oh, but I still got pummeled by those other Foul Plays."

"So you want me to take all of those Foul Plays? After taking damage from all your Volt Tackles?"

"Oh yeah." Storm grinned. "I forgot about that. So I did kick your butt today, yeah?"

"My sister's going to be so happy."

"Mm-hmm." After a pause, Storm went on, "So you admit that you were the one who got us into that mess earlier."

"Uhh, yeah." Roselio sounded sheepish.

"Soooo, you probably shouldn't have picked on those thugs."

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have..."

"And gone into battle without having analyzed type matchups."

"Mm, yeah. Not that too, I guess."

"And picked a fight without first having a strategy."

"Yeah, yeah," Roselio laughed sheepishly. "OK, so I did a lot of stuff I shouldn't have, but I won't do those again, at least not in front of you... if that's what you're hoping to hear." He shot her a meaningful look.

"Good." Storm grinned.

There was a pause.

Roselio, being the talkative Pokémon he is, broke it not too long after.

"You know, Storm, you're an awesome battler," he said. "Your ability to make split-second strategies is impressive, and your attacks pack quite a punch."

"Thanks." Storm smiled. For a second, her cheeks looked redder than usual. She cleared her throat and went on, "You're also an awesome battler, Roselio! You're elusive and can dodge opponents' attacks... most of the time. And you have a lot of tricks up your roses, which is impressive as well."

Again he brushed it off. "Oh, come on, I'm not that good," he said lightly. "I just try my best, I guess! But hey, though we have different battle styles, I do think we make quite a nice team."

Storm nodded, smiling.

And as the sun set even lower in the Arcane Area sky, Pikachu and Roselia walked to the Dance Zone and ultimately the end of the Meteor Mash-up.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

If you passed by in front of Haxorus' dojo just before dusk, you would spot a Grass-type with a mushroom-shaped hat and a Fire-type with a stick sticking out of her furry tail. The former was holding a Haxorus Poké Doll in his stretchy arms.

Braixen looked up at the sun, which was starting to set. The sky was already beginning to turn orange.

"Looks like we're just in time," she said. "It's almost dusk. We'd better head back to the Dance Zone. The Meteor Mash-up's going to end soon."

Breloom nodded with a smirk. "It's been an eventful day, hasn't it?" he said. "I had tons of fun." He looked at her. "I'm glad to have been paired up with ya, Braixen. I originally thought ya were going to be really prissy and girly and annoying, but I found that you're not at all."

Braixen laughed. "That was what I thought, too," she admitted. "I thought I'd made a big mistake in joining this thing. Now I'm glad I participated after all."

Breloom nodded, then looked down at his feet. "Uhh... anyway..."

Braixen tilted her head. "Huh? Anyway what?"

"Here."

Suddenly the Mushroom Pokémon thrust the Poké Doll into her hands. "I want ya to have this."

"Huh?" Braixen accepted it, but protested, "You don't have to. Besides, I gotta admit that you were the one who defeated more Pokémon back then." She chuckled.

However, he shook his head. "That doesn't matter," he said. "Please take it."

"Ah..." Braixen looked down at her feet. "Well... OK. Thank you, Breloom. This is really sweet of you." She smiled at the doll. "For a Haxorus, it looks rather cute. I'm glad it's not a Hariyama."

"You're welcome." He suddenly looked up. There was a smirk on his face. "Besides, Lombre would never let me hear the end of it if I returned holding a Poké Doll."

Braixen returned the smirk. "Oh, yes. I understand. So you consider yourself a Tough Guy now."

"Nope," Breloom said lightly. "I've considered myself a Tough Guy since a long time ago. Come on, let's get back to the Dance Zone."

He took her hand, and they set off for the Dance Zone as the sun sank even lower behind Haxorus' dojo.

Luckily for Braixen, he wasn't running.

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

Treecko and Amelia spent the rest of the afternoon walking in the Flight Zone. Amelia mentioned that twilight was her favorite time of the day, so Treecko thought she would like the dimly-lit, futuristic style of the Flight Zone. It was considerably quieter there, so they could finally hear themselves think (and sing, of course).

As the sun was setting, they were on their way back to the Dance Zone, where Lopunny would end the Meteor Mash-up.

However, Treecko had something he needed to do.

He stopped walking. Amelia was still walking, so she stopped a bit further down. Wondering why he'd stopped, she turned around...

...and saw that the wood gecko was holding a dark blue flower. Arceus knows where he'd got it.

"Oh..." She couldn't believe what she was seeing as she walked back to him.

"Here," the Grass-type said, thrusting the flower at her. "This is, um... for you."

He couldn't stop himself from blushing, so he turned away. He was sure his face was as red as a fire engine now.

"Oh, Treecko, this is so pretty," Amelia said softly, taking the flower. "This is really sweet of you. Th-thanks."

"Mm-hmm. It's nothing."

Yep, that was what he said... when he got the surprise of his life. The Umbreon suddenly leant in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

That succeeded in making Treecko's face get even redder, if that was possible.

"See, you can be really sweet when you want to." Amelia was smiling shyly. "Thank you for today, Treecko. I had a whopping good time."

For the first time in his life, cool Treecko was positively dumbstruck. He couldn't force any words out, so he settled on a simple nod.

Amelia grinned cheekily. "Come on then, we'd better be heading for the Dance Zone," she said.

Treecko nodded again, this time managing a short "OK."

And they walked in the direction of the Dance Zone, the setting sun, and ultimately the end of the Meteor Mash-up.

...Whoever could have guessed that a randomized pairing event could teach you so much about yourself?

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia – Fin<em>

* * *

><p>...<p>

Gremlin and Froslass stayed as the other Pokémon filed out of Chandelure's tent. It was almost sunset, which meant that the Meteor Mash-up was almost over. Since all of the other participants were to go back to Chandelure's tent, Gremlin and Froslass didn't have to go anywhere.

"Since this is almost the end of the Meteor Mash-up," Froslass started coolly, "I do believe that I must thank you for making it clear to me that being so uptight all the time is not how I should be. I should also make time for fun and laughter and dancing to that specific kind of music. You should wait and see... perhaps by the time we meet again, I will have gained some knowledge on that."

Gremlin stood straighter and puffed out his chest proudly. "Why, you're welcome!" he exclaimed. "And I should thank you for spending time with me, too! I really admire your knowledge on science, Froslass. Oh, and I also love your chemistry jokes."

"Speaking of which, I remember another one I have not told you before," Froslass said with a grin.

Gremlin chuckled. "OK, let's hear it."

Froslass looked nonchalantly out at the sunset through the flaps of Chandelure's tent. "I was meaning to tell you a joke about sodium..."

"Uh-uh?" Gremlin waited in anticipation for the punchline.

Froslass smiled another merciless smile like the one she had smiled after playing the prank on Medicham and Jynx.

"But then I thought, Na!"

* * *

><p><em>Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass – Fin<em>


	20. Chapter 20

**~ Meteor Mashed! ~**

As the sun set lower in the sky, Lopunny saw the pairings who weren't already in the Dance Zone enter from various directions.

Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen came from the direction of the Power Zone, the latter seeming to be holding something green in her paws.

Pairing 2: Treecko x Amelia came from the direction of the Cake Zone. Lopunny thought she saw something dark blue tucked behind the Umbreon's ear.

Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy came from the Cake Zone, where they'd popped out of the poster portal from the Beach Cove. They were talking animatedly.

Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori simply dropped out of the sky in front of Chandelure's tent. Staraptor did a last loop-the-loop before landing, Tori cheering in excitement.

Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm jumped out of the poster portal right in the Dance Zone because they'd taken it from the Arbor Area. After them came Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy, still chatting up a storm. Behind them trailed Darwin. She was wearing a forlorn expression on her face and had her roses folded in front of her. Her footsteps were heavy and glum.

Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy also jumped out of the poster portal from the Arbor Area some time later. They seemed to be having fun chatting. Surprisingly, Cleffy didn't look as shy as she had been when she first met Nile.

Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass didn't have to go anywhere. They were already waiting in the Dance Zone, still talking about their misadventures in the Dance Inferno. Both were laughing... even Froslass.

Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre came from the direction of the Cake Zone also. Lombre was holding and munching on a cupcake. They were joking around, of course involving a lot of Spanish words, sarcastic comments, and shoulder-punching.

The updated Pairing 9 also didn't need to go anywhere else. Tepig and Altaria were still on their bench - they'd never really left except for the time they'd stood up to grab some popcorn.

Once everyone was there, it was time for Lopunny to end the Meteor Mash-up.

"Welcome back, Meteor Mash-up participants!" she called into the microphone. "Boy, it's been quite an eventful day, hasn't it?"

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Everyone was smiling - that is, everyone but Darwin.

Up in front, Lopunny grinned. "I've been watching you guys," she said. "I had my... _means._ Yep, I saw _everything_ unfold." At this, Lopunny saw Rem and Lombre look at each other meaningfully.

She went on, "But I gotta say, I've totally been loving how you've been spending the day. Most, if not all, started out awkward, but it only took till a bit before midday to make me all gushing and fangirling. Have a round of applause!" She clapped her hands, and everyone followed suit.

"I hope you all learned something about yourselves today, aside from knowing someone new, because that's also what the Meteor Mash-up is about."

Lopunny looked around at all the faces. They all looked happy - that is, everyone but Darwin.

"Finally," she said, "I hope you all had fun today! You may have learned new things about yourself and your Meteor Mash-up friend, but it wouldn't have meant anything if you didn't have fun!"

Everyone cheered and clapped.

"That's all for today!" Lopunny finally ended her speech. "See you all next year!"

Everyone clapped louder - that is, everyone but Darwin. And as Lopunny got off her small stage, this year's Meteor Mash-up officially ended.

...

* * *

><p>After that, some of the Pokémon went home after exchanging some last words. They said, "See you next time!" but no one said goodbye.<p>

After a while, the only ones left in front of Chandelure's tent were Team Red Bow, Team Overgrow, Team PokéPark, Darwin, Hypno, and Altaria. Roselio's group was chatting to one another. Hypno was still chatting with Snivy; Altaria with Tepig. Darwin stood in one corner, looking sullen.

The Roserade was staring at the ground with her arms folded in front of her when someone said her name in an annoyingly uncertain way.

"Uh... Darwin?"

She looked up to see Tepig staring up at her. He was shuffling his hooves and looked as if he was wondering what to say next.

For a moment that actually felt like ages, no one said anything.

And suddenly they both blurted out, "I'm sorry."

Darwin sighed and sank down until she was at eye level with the fire pig.

"Look, it's my fault," she said. "It's my fault that I believed in such things; my fault that I was so sure I'd get paired up with him. I guess I was immature and I'm really sorry. Can you forgive me for being such a pain today, Tepig?"

Tepig touched one of her roses. "I forgive you," he said. "I understand and I forgive you. I'm also really sorry for having called you by the wrong name earlier." He grimaced.

"That was _my_ fault, too." Darwin laughed bitterly. "I can't expect everyone to know my nickname. You don't have to apologize because that was also my fault and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I was a prick."

"Hey! You can stop apologizing now."

"Huh. OK. I'm sorry," Darwin said softly.

After that, both were silent. Tepig's hoof was still lying on Darwin's red rose. No one said anything for a long time.

The silence was broken by a voice.

"Oi, Darwynette."

Darwin's head snapped up as she automatically wore a glaring expression, which promptly disappeared when she saw who it was.

"Hypno?" she cried out in disbelief, then frowned. "I thought you were having _such a lot of fun_ chatting with Snivy."

The Psychic-type shrugged. "I was wondering whether you'd like to go out tomorrow afternoon."

Tepig's hoof was tapping her rose meaningfully as her face lit up. "Go out...?"

"Yeah," Hypno said nonchalantly. "I'll pick you up at your house at four, then we'll go and stroll in the Pokémon Square. I can show you some of my hypnotism tricks."

Darwin was smiling, but it was nowhere near stupid and fan-girly.

_Look at him,_ she thought. _He's been ignoring me all day and now he's acting as if I said I would go out with him._

Her reply surprised both Hypno and Tepig.

"Sorry, I can't." She smiled sweetly. "I'm afraid I already have a date with Altaria tomorrow. We're going to have a picnic at the beach. Maybe some other time?"

"Uh... OK." Hypno seemed to not believe what she'd just said.

Darwin wasn't finished yet. She tilted her head. "Oh, and I'd like to make this clear once again that it's Darwin and _not_ Darwynette, _merci!_"

Hypno blinked and finally, what Darwin had said seemed to register in his mind.

"OK, so some other time," he said. "I'll call you."

Darwin made sure to act as if she was thinking it over. Finally, she gave in and said, "Oh, all right."

Hypno turned and started to walk away when he suddenly stopped. "Oh, and another thing."

He turned to look back at Darwin. His eyes stared straight into her own.

"I just want to say that I don't understand why you don't like the name Darwynette," he said. "I think it sounds pretty, like the name of a French queen in our history textbook who got beheaded. Darwin sounds like the name of the bearded Alakazam who talked about natural selection and evolution and stuff. I think Darwynette is a pretty name fit for a Pokémon like you. That's all."

He turned around again and walked away.

Darwin was left staring after him, Tepig's hoof tapping away conspiratorially on her red rose.

...

* * *

><p>When Darwin and Tepig rejoined the others (minus Hypno), they were talking about what they'd learned during the Meteor Mash-up.<p>

"I learned a new card game. I'm pretty good at it, mind you," Oshawott boasted.

"Boy, how I learned that looks can be deceiving." Breloom shook his head.

"I learned that everyone has knowledge, only that they may be of different things," Froslass concluded. "And that letting go and having fun and laughing out loud once in a while is essential."

"I discovered the beauty of physics," Staraptor sighed with a goofy smile on his face.

"I learned of a different battle strategy," Roselio began, then grimaced. "Oh, and now I know what _not_ to do when interacting with thugs."

Everyone stared at him for a moment with horrified expressions. When he didn't seem to realize anything, they blinked and moved on.

"I finally found an opponent who's my level when it comes to food fights," Lombre said.

Everyone stared again, but Lombre glared back and snapped, "What?"

"Well, what did _you_ learn today, Treecko?" Tepig quickly changed he subject, but the wood gecko only said, "I... I'd rather not say." His face was interestingly redder than green.

Unnoticed by everyone, someone else was also standing there with a beetroot red face. Cleffy Clefairy was glad no one brought any attention to herself by asking her what she'd learned.

Oh, but how she'd learned! She'd learned from Nile, then had chatted with Darwin. She'd learned about courage, confidence, and what would happen if you didn't have enough of them to express herself: she'd end up like Darwin, taking the winding route only to realize that what lay at the end of the road wasn't quite what she'd wanted. She had to shoot for the moon, and if she missed, well, at least she'd tried, right?

_Just do it, Cleffy._

"Roselio," she'd blurted out before she could fully process what she was doing. To her added horror, it came out louder than she'd expected, causing everyone to turn and look at her. Her face instantly went even redder, and she felt like kicking herself.

_Ugh, why do I have to be so stupid as to say it in front of everyone? I could have waited until we're alone.  
><em>  
>But it was too late to turn back now.<p>

_Just do it.  
><em>  
>"Umm... would you mind... y-you know... g-going out to Spinda's Juice Bar to g-get some smoothies with me t-tomorrow?" She played with her fingers and looked down at her feet because she didn't have enough guts to look at him. She quickly added, "Uh, it's OK if you decline, though... I know y-you're b-busy with you being a rescue team leader and all that, so I t-totally understand if you d-don't want to... I'm s-sorry! I d-don't know exactly how busy you are, so... I'm sorry..."<p>

"Sure," said Roselio.

Cleffy was about to apologize again when she froze. "Wh-what...? D-did you just...?"

"Sure, I'll go out with you!" Roselio repeated brightly.

Cleffy's mouth was wide open. She didn't expect him to accept her invitation this easily. OK, she didn't even think he'd accept it in the first place.

Although many thoughts were swirling about in her head, the only thing she could force out was a pathetic "B-but why?"

Roselio frowned in confusion. "Why?" he repeated blankly, followed by a laugh. "You're funny. Why would I not want to go out with you, Clef?"

"...Oh." A goofy smile took over Cleffy's red face. "Uh, OK. N-no reason, I guess... ahaha..." She cleared her throat. "OK, t-tomorrow, then...!"

Meanwhile, the others had been watching the whole scene unfold with eyes as big as saucers and mouths wide open. They certainly hadn't expected this.

...Well, that is, everyone but a certain Roserade. She mostly hung back with her arms folded in front of her, but there was a most meaningful smile playing on her lips.

»̶✽«̶

* * *

><p>...<p>

Team Red Bow went back to Treasure Town with Darwin and Altaria. However, Staraptor wished they didn't because the Roserade was skipping more enthusiastically and energetically than a Vigoroth on sugar high. (In short, totally uncool.)

Roselio grinned as he walked beside his sister. "_Vous etes super content!_ You're really happy," he observed.

Darwin did a pirouette. "_Oui, oui!_" she sang. "He asked me out! Do you know what that means, _mon frère très sympa?_ That means he likes me!" She sighed. "And he said he liked my name! Do you know what that means, my dear brother?"

"Uh... Hypno likes beheaded French queens in history textbooks?"

"No!" Darwin laughed, acting very unlike her usual self. She paused and thought it over. "Actually, he probably does, but that's not the point. My point is, that means he _likes_ me!"

She skipped around Roselio and his friends and Altaria, humming and singing and generally acting like a happy 'mon.

Roselio laughed. "Does that mean we can call you Darwynette now?"

Darwin's skipping and chanting stopped abruptly. She was a few paces ahead of Team Red Bow and Altaria and had her back to them.

When she turned around, she was smiling a wide smile that nearly reached her white rose petals.

"_Mon frère très sympa,_" she sang...

"Don't push your luck."

** ~ the end ~**

* * *

><p><em>And that's the end of my first SYOC fic! I thank those who stuck with this and made it this far.<em>_ I thank you for your patience._

_At first, I planned to make _Meteor Mashed! _a small writing practice, to see if I can write about characters that aren't mine (I hope I got them right). As you can clearly see, my imagination ran amok. Not that I regret it, though - writing about all of them, my own characters or not, was fun._

_Feedback is appreciated!_


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